I always wondered what the answer was but never got round to looking it up. I thought there’s no way it can be such a famous sentence and have the answer be that fucking stupid.
Maybe in the 60s or sometime when gender norms were more strictly enforced it would have been good?
So you thought it must be his mom but then said nah that can’t be it that’s too stupid?
If so, that’s a good sign that the world has progressed. I was thinking recently how 99% of the time you hear the word “progress” it’s satiric and about knocking down your grandma’s house to build a data center or whatever. But actual progress can happen.
It’s not about enforced gender norms but expectations, associations. And they still persist. The song “Draw me a person” by Kate Couriel discusses this quite good.
"A Ferengi gets stuck in a turbolift, but the Enterprise’s engineering team cannot reach it from their position. Miraculously the turbolift starts to move, and when the lift opens up, the engineering team ask: “How did you get it going again?”
Answer
The Ferengi was also an engineer
Or “A Vulcan diplomat is given the nicest quarters on the Starbase, but complains that they are too small.”
Answer
The Vulcan lied.
Or "Turkana IV colonists steal a weapons shipment, in preparation for their civil war but never use the fancy weapons. How come?"
Answer
Are you kidding? A Turkana colonist wouldn’t piss on fire to save his own mother.
Or "A Klingon, a Vulcan, and a Romulan walk into a Ferengi bar but none of them order a drink, how come?"
Answer
The Vulcan doesn’t drink, and neither the Klingon nor the Romulan had any Latinum
This mistake is hilarious given the original “riddle” this comic is riffing on.
I like reading it when it says “this is impossible since the dad died!” And my first thought was gay parents instead of the mom being a surgeon lol
I still remember my mom riddling me this one back in the 70s
I always wondered what the answer was but never got round to looking it up. I thought there’s no way it can be such a famous sentence and have the answer be that fucking stupid.
Maybe in the 60s or sometime when gender norms were more strictly enforced it would have been good?
So you thought it must be his mom but then said nah that can’t be it that’s too stupid?
If so, that’s a good sign that the world has progressed. I was thinking recently how 99% of the time you hear the word “progress” it’s satiric and about knocking down your grandma’s house to build a data center or whatever. But actual progress can happen.
It’s not about enforced gender norms but expectations, associations. And they still persist. The song “Draw me a person” by Kate Couriel discusses this quite good.
Pretty much, yes.
I guess the modern equivalent would be:
"A Ferengi gets stuck in a turbolift, but the Enterprise’s engineering team cannot reach it from their position. Miraculously the turbolift starts to move, and when the lift opens up, the engineering team ask: “How did you get it going again?”
Answer
The Ferengi was also an engineer
Or “A Vulcan diplomat is given the nicest quarters on the Starbase, but complains that they are too small.”
Answer
The Vulcan lied.
Or "Turkana IV colonists steal a weapons shipment, in preparation for their civil war but never use the fancy weapons. How come?"
Answer
Are you kidding? A Turkana colonist wouldn’t piss on fire to save his own mother.
Or "A Klingon, a Vulcan, and a Romulan walk into a Ferengi bar but none of them order a drink, how come?"
Answer
The Vulcan doesn’t drink, and neither the Klingon nor the Romulan had any Latinum