Funny / Numberphile

If you think mathematicians are mature and serious people, Numberphile will swiftly prove you wrong.

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Miscellaneous

• The Numberphiles find no shame in discussing a number or concept just because the name sounds funny. Prominent examples include "Sexy Primes" and "15 bumfit" (yes, you read that correctly).
  "Let's be honest — the reason we're doing this video is because it has a funny name."
• "Hello. Hello, tiny dog. [getting licked] 'It's a different person!' "
• "If you want to use the French notation, watch this video upside-down and in a mirror."
• "So why did James choose 3 for this video? He just thinks it sounds funnier!"
• "It's like a joke! It's not much like one, I'll give you that."
• "Why have you got both of them? Shouldn't your lover have the other half?" "Yeah, thanks for pointing that out! Thanks for bringing that up!"
• "I've built a diorama...uh, well...what I've done is stick a LEGO man to a ruler. So there it is. I want you to imagine that you're this LEGO man. It's annoying, you've been stuck to a ruler, so you can't move around."
• "Here is a soup bowl that I st– I mean borrowed from a cafeteria in Cambridge…"
• "You've broken maths, Brady. Stop that."
• The video on why Youtube videos stop at 301 views is permanently stuck at 301 views.
• In the extra footage for The Amazing Heptadecagon, while Eisenbud is writing a very long formula, a text overlay appears that says "Spotted a mistake? Email us at mistakes@". The rest of the e-mail address is cut off at the edge of the video.
• In Statistics, Storks, and Babies, the guest jokingly tells viewers to e-mail him if they want him to explain where babies really come from. The text overlays says "[e-mail]"

Fifth Root Trick

• "How'd I do it so quickly? I'm a genius."
  • Brady splutters as if to ask if Simon's actually going to explain the trick, since that's the point of the video.
• "Believe it or not, a lot of kids love to do 69 to the power of 5…"
• Partway through the video, Brady's greyhound Lulu can be seen in the background. Because of her size, shape, and colour, many viewers wondered why Brady had a deer in his house.

A Mathematical Fable

• "Oh, I call that the…Blob Pythagorean Theorem."
• Councillor: [having just explained something] And...there you are.
  King: WHERE AM I?!

Topology of a Twisted Torus

• "I am Carlo Séquin, and this is a bagel!"
• "That means we can put more cream cheese on this bagel!"
• "This really is the Galactic Concentrator. If you hold it in the right spot, it will take the power that comes from the black hole in the centre of the galaxy, and it focus upon you, and it gives you eternal beauty and intelligence and all the good stuff. But don't tell that to anybody else."

Sexy Primes

• "Let's be honest — the reason we're doing this video is because it has a funny name."
• James unleashes his inner Pungeon Master:
  "Let's pick some…sexy triplets. Yeah, it's getting more exciting all the time, isn't it!"
  "If they have a difference of five…what are we gonna call them? Quincy primes! That reminds me of Quincy — solving crimes on a boat."
  "Difference of seven… That's going to be a…septic prime? Which doesn't sound very nice…"
  "Difference of eight, what do you think that's going to be called? OCTOMUS PRIME!"

How to order 43 Chicken McNuggets

• Brady's request at the drive-thru for 43 chicken nuggets is met with 7 full seconds of baffled silence.
• James: I wanna know how many sachets of barbecue sauce they think someone with 44 nuggets needs. [after counting 8 of them] It's not enough.
  Brady: What?!
  James: It's not enough.
  Brady: 8? For 44?
  James: Come on. Augh. Disappointing.

15 bumfit

• " 'Pimp' is 5. I find that quite nicely amusing."
• "If you want to take anything away from this, it's a pimp plus a dik is a bumfit."
• "They get to 20 sheep, and they couldn't cope with that."
• Brady: What was it about these numbers that appealed to you? Are you a bit juvenile?
  Roger: Yeah! Yeah, I find as I get older, I immature with age.

Subtracting Paperclips

• "Hopefully this works. If it doesn't, we'll be very sad, and some disaster happens."
• "You like that, don't you?"
  • "Yeah, that's very nice. You can make them come apart."

Catching Kendama

• Tadashi explains various kendama tricks, each time stating that the trick is "almost impossible" or "too hard" or "never works", only to manage each of them on the first or second try. By the end, he actually starts looking confused:
  Tadashi: You should contrast this with when I don't spin, and how much harder and more difficult it becomes – [gets it in one try] – I can do it anyway. Okay…
  ["Toykieda" rolls its eyes]

The Parker Square

• A meme is born:
  Matt: I don't wanna call it the "Parker Square", because it doesn't work properly. Everybody will be like, "Oh, that's a classic Parker Square." Or someone will do something that's almost right, but not quite, and they go, "That's a real Parker Square kind of move." So I'm not calling it the Parker Square –
  Brady: Matt, you know what this video's going to be called, don't you?
  Matt: Oh, for crying out loud…
• "I tell you what, Matt: I don't think this was our best Numberphile video — but it was a Parker Square of a Numberphile video."
• Matt: STOP TRYING TO MAKE "PARKER SQUARE" A THING!
  Outro: [displays a t-shirt with the Parker Square on it]

  NOW AVAILABLE
  TheParkerSquare.com
  @TheParkerSquare

• Sure enough, "Parker Square" has now become a meme within the Numberphile viewership, used to refer to something that isn't quite correct (especially if the mistake isn't immediately obvious), something that is merely an approximation or estimate, an earnest but unsuccessful attempt, or something that one finds to be deficient or defective in some way. Sometimes used as a verb, especially for the second and third senses. Snowclones ("Parker [Noun]") and puns (e.g. "Parkour Square") are common.
  • The meme has also spread to Matt's own channel (standupmaths). It's especially apt on his video about his quest to find the most square Square in New York City:
    Viewer: So it's 2% away from counting as a square. If only we had a name for nearly-but-not-quite-perfect squares...
• The meme has fully ascended in 2019 with the publication of a research paper where the name "Parker" was given to a property of finite fields, in which no proper 3x3 Magic Square Puzzle can be constructed. Conversely, non-Parker finite fields are the ones where such magic squares can be found, i.e. where one does not have to resort to Parker squares. See full explanation by the man himself here.

A 10,958 Problem

• "Keep your cheat notes in your head and no one knows you're cheating." "Also known as learning." "Shhhh."

A 10,958 Solution

• Exactly a year after the birth of the Parker Square, Matt demonstrates yet another "close as I can get" attempt at solving a problem:
  Brady: Matt, in what world do you think I'm not putting a Parker Square on the screen right now?
  Matt: As long as you're not trying to sell the t-shirt again. Do you know how many people show up to my shows wearing Parker Square t-shirts?!
  Brady: Not enough.

The Relationship Equation

• As Dr. Fry expounds on various types of interactions couples can have, the animations decide to have some fun demonstrating with fictional exchanges:
  • "You forgot the trash." "You forgot to remind me."
  • "I like ABBA music." "I wish bad upon you."
  • (showing "interest"): "That is fascinating!" (showing "validation"): "You look very valid today."
  • "This is for you." "AMAZEBALLS."