Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality

This fanfic series, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, is one big Crowning Moment Of Funny. Look at the page quote, for a start!

edited 11th May '10 3:40:27 PM by RawPower

But it's a redlink...

It Got Better.

I will never fail to be surprised that Yudkowsky writes fan fiction.

Rational!Potter is the funniest Magnificent Bastard Awesome by Analysis Badass Bookworm in wizarding history! The more I read, the more I love him!

^ Who?

edited 11th May '10 3:53:50 PM by RawPower

Eliezer Yudkowsky, a blogger who writes about transhumanism and rationality. Desertopa and Korgmeister and so on link to articles on his site a lot.

Well I assure you this is the funniest bestest Fan Fic I have ever read. I hertily recommend it. In fact, it represents the spirit of This Wiki so well, it should be one of its flagships, along with The Princess Bride, Princess Tutu and Gurren Lagann.

Holy crap. This Chapter. Was. Hilarious..

"Madam Malkin," Mc Gonagall said, her voice calm. "What has been happening here?"

Madam Malkin looked back silently for four seconds, and then cracked up. She fell against the wall, wheezing out laughter, and that set off both of her assistants, one of whom fell to her hands and knees on the floor, giggling hysterically.

Mc Gonagall slowly turned to look at Harry, her expression chilly. "I leave you alone for five minutes. Five minutes, Mr. Potter, by the very clock."

"I was only joking around," Harry protested, as the sounds of hysterical laughter went on nearby.

"Draco Malfoy said in front of his father that he wanted to be sorted into Gryffindor! Joking around isn't enough to do that!" Mc Gonagall paused, breathing heavily. "What part of 'get fitted for robes' sounded to you like please cast a Confundus Charm on the entire universe!?"

It Makes Sense in Context...

EDIT: OH MY GOD! This keeps getting BETTER AND BETTER. This book should be printed as an official spinoff, and children should be made to read it at school! Yes!

edited 11th May '10 5:09:51 PM by RawPower

Eh, it's alright, I suppose. It's much better than most of the fanfics I've read, at least.

Well, The Simple Truth is one of the funniest essays I've ever read, so I'd be surprised if that didn't carry over to the fanfic. I guess I could read this stuff, though.

Pretty good. I may have to actually read his books.

Harry's rant about the Time Machine is the funniest thing ever.

Seriously, the lack of curiosity of the characters in the original is staggering.

I clearly need to read this. Hadn't before due to Archive Panic.

Dunno when I'll start, though. Work again tomorrow and I'm always fantastic at coming up with ways to entertain myself in my free time. Boredom is what happens when the customers thin out =P

Looks to be very interesting. I shall read this later.

As of chapter 17, Harry Potter is trying to turn this into Primer, but Mc Gonnagall has managed to slow him. For now.

Edit: also, Dumbledore reads TOLKIEN...

Dumbledore got himself under control again with a visible effort. "Ah, Harry, one symptom of the disease called wisdom is that you begin laughing at things that no one else thinks is funny, because when you're wise, Harry, you start getting the jokes!" The old wizard wiped tears away from his eyes. "Ah, me. Ah, me. Oft evil will shall evil mar indeed, in very deed."

Harry's brain took a moment to place the familiar words... "Hey, that's a Tolkien quote! Gandalf says that!"

"Theoden, actually," said Dumbledore.

"You're Muggleborn?" Harry said in shock.

"I'm afraid not," said Dumbledore, smiling again. "I was born seventy years before that book was published, dear child. But it seems that my Muggleborn students tend to think alike in certain ways. I have accumulated no fewer than twenty copies of The Lord of the Rings and three sets of Tolkien's entire collected works, and I treasure every one of them." Dumbledore drew his wand and held it up and struck a pose. "You cannot pass! How does that look?"

"Ah," Harry said in something approaching complete brain shutdown, "I think you're missing a Balrog." And the pink pajamas and squashed mushroom hat were not helping in the slightest.

edited 12th May '10 11:18:59 AM by RawPower

No love for this fic?

Well, just a little spoiler to give you an idea of how smarter and more interesting this Voldemort is. Do you know where he put one of his horcruxes? In the freaking golden plake that's on the Pioneer SPACECRAFT, which has already left the Solar System and is travelling through INTERSTELLAR SPACE. Can I say Only the Author Can Save Them Now, and HARRY IS ONLY AT HIS FIRST WEEK AT HOGWARTS???? I mean, even supposing someone can pull an Accio, and supposing that accio WORKS over such a distance, then how long until it comes back, and will it fall like a meteorite on the head of the caster?

More importantly, I have just invented the Harry Potter equivalent of the Moon Hook: Yell Accio Moon, see your body risethrough the sky in its direction, cancel it in time, rinse and repeat. You are now like Spider-Man, except you can use the freaking MOON instead of buildings, a certain advantage in places that aren't New York City. Does it beat a broom? Depends.

edited 14th May '10 6:48:41 AM by RawPower

I'm sorry, Harry Potter is not the protagonist of this fic. Agatha Clay is. Do I need any more proof than this?

I, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, do now claim this territory in the name of Science.

Yell Accio Moon,

Edit: I spoke too soon. I know the rest of the Lehrer song mentioned. It's probably a good thing Harry doesn't.

edited 14th May '10 2:41:22 PM by Yej

^ I didn't know about this song. It's a Crowning Moment Of Funny. And yeah, it's better if Harry doesn't find out.

How come this isn't insanely popular? It's even more hilarious than the Puppet Pals. Harry logic bombs the Sorting Hat, for crying out loud!

Edit: Is there a trope for a continuous Crowning Moment Of Funny?

Harry: I am not Dark Lord material!

Hat: Yes, you are. You really, really are.

edited 16th May '10 6:06:19 AM by Yej

When you finish it, go read Three Worlds Collide. It'll blow your mind.

But I guess this fic is awesome to people who can share rational!Harry's mindset, i.e. not everyone.

I haven't read it, but I'm already feeling Hype Backlash because, you know, logic and magic should never ever ever mix.

Jojos Bizarre Adventure. Full stop.

Oh, and Code Geass.

Well, listen, Magic A Is Magic A. Except in the Potter verse, it does not WORK, which drives rational!Potter to despair. Hilarity Ensues.

Now I want to write a story in which a character in a hyper-rationalist story becomes a romantic-era hero.

You mean Byronic Hero versus Rationalist Setting, or Science Hero versus World of Ham?

Byronic Hero vs rationalist setting. I genuinely think that could be interesting, an individualist hero going on about intuition, and disrupting a collectivist logical society, through charisma and magic.

edited 16th May '10 5:17:08 PM by Myrmidon