Somebody please appreciate this joke...

[snarkophilus]

So I went to a bunch of presentations of research projects at the university the other day because one guy in my research group was giving a talk. I ended up sitting with him and one of his friends, and as he was getting ready for his turn, the three of us began talking about how preparing to give a talk is kind of like preparing to compete in a sporting event.

There was a delay as we waited for people to show up, and things got a little silly. As Mike (the guy about to talk) walked up to the front to check his slides, I quietly chanted out (this was a pretty informal event), "Mike! Mike! Mike! Hoo hoo hoo hoo!" while rotating my arm in the air in typical sports cheer fashion. His friend and I had a little laugh over it, and she said, "Yeah, I can just see it now. Periodic heckling coming from the crowd as he talks."

I looked at her for a moment, then responded, "Periodic heckling? BO-RON! CAR-BON! Hoo hoo hoo!"

We laughed for a good twenty minutes.

Maybe you had to be there.

[Tobin Dax]

Well, if you were doing the Arsenio arm thing as you did that, then the movement of your arm could also be periodic. :D (That's what came to this astrophysicist's mind.)

[snarkophilus]

Well, if you were doing the Arsenio arm thing as you did that, then the movement of your arm could also be periodic. :D (That's what came to this astrophysicist's mind.)

Oh dear, I didn't even think of that. It was an inadvertent triple pun! :)

[swansont]

And you should have used periods instead of exclamation points, to make it more p.e.r.i.o.d.i.c.

[mahesh]

well, the exclamation point looks like a pendulum...

so you could oscillate it and work out the period of oscillation?

well, Snarkophilus, i appreciate your train of thought. bet you were in your elements!

[Reacher]

Reminds me of being at a restaurant a few years ago with a group of maybe 12 people. One guy asks "What do you get, though, when you combine pasta and antipasta?" He came up with some lame answer like "Pasties" or something, and I muttered to myself "Annihilation..."

The guy across from me thought it was hilarious, but nobody else who heard it seemed to think I was making any sense.

[mahesh]

Yah, Reacher...
it's like when i mention the (newly discovered fundamental particle) ...'moron' .

i tend to get similar response

[Nicolas]

I will ask for integral transfer of this thread into the Irresistible Pun Thread ;) :D

[Jeff Root]

The only time I heckled a speaker was when someone from
Motorola was talking about the Iridium satellite system which
was then just about to start being launched. He said that
instead of the originally-planned 77 satellites, there would
only be 66. I quickly pulled out my wallet-size periodic table
(carried for just such exigencies), and yelled, "DYSPROSIUM!"

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it.