Technology Humour

This is a follow on from Some Engineering Humour which you are likely to also enjoy. For this post I have tried to find videos that show some aspect of the use of technology that also has a humorous side to it. This was surprisingly difficult. It seems that as engineers, we often don’t give a lot of credit to the power of humour. My previous post is on page 1 of Google when I search for Engineering Humour! So the videos I did find are all by non-engineers.

This first video is by Aparna Rao who shows a range of products or art installations she developed, many of which re-imagine everyday objects and have quite a sophisticated sense of humour associated. The art installations are her speciality and all require technology for the implementation. The design of objects for quirky family members is quite touching.

Design Humour

David Carson is talking about design. He uses humour extremely well in this presentation although it take him about 5 minutes to get warmed up so don’t bail out early as it is well worth listening to the end. If you are interested in design at all, Electronics Design or any other sort, then this has some very interesting points to consider. I particularly found the implications for User Interface Design to be thought provoking.

Engineering Jokes

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To a pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers? Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets.

An engineer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, “If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a beautiful princess”. He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week.” The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket. The frog then cried out, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I’ll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want for a week.” Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket. Finally, the frog asked, “What is the matter? I’ve told you I’m a beautiful princess, that I’ll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won’t you kiss me?” The engineer said, “Look I’m an engineer. I don’t have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, that’s cool.

Four engineers were driving to a conference together when their car stopped dead in the road. The Electrical Engineer said it was clearly a wiring problem and they needed to check the fuses. The Chemical Engineer said obviously it was a clog in the fuel line – all they needed to do was clean the fuel filter. The Mechanical Engineer said that they were all mistaken – surely it had thrown a rod and they needed to rebuild the engine. They all waited for the Software Engineer to say something, as he just sat there. Finally they asked him what he thought was wrong. He shrugged his shoulders and said “I don’t know maybe if we get out of the car and get back in it’ll start.”

A math and engineering convention was being held. On the train to the convention, there were both math majors and engineering majors. Each of the math majors had his/her own train ticket. But the Engineers had only ONE ticket for all of them. The math majors started laughing and snickering. The engineers ignored the laughter. Then, one of the engineers said, “Here comes the conductor”. All of the engineers piled into the bathroom. The math majors were puzzled. The conductor came aboard and collected tickets from all the math majors. He went to the bathroom, knocked on the door, and said, “Tickets Please”. An engineer stuck their only ticket under the door. The conductor took the ticket and left. A few minutes later, the engineers emerged from the bathroom. The math majors felt really stupid. On the way back from the convention, the group of math majors had ONE ticket for their group. They started snickering at the engineers, who had NO tickets amongst them. When the engineer lookout shouted, “Conductor coming!”, all the engineers again piled into a bathroom. All of the math majors went into another bathroom. Then, before the conductor came on board, one of the engineers left the bathroom, knocked on the other bathroom, and said, “Ticket please.”

Two Engineers walk into a bar, the third one ducks.

Random things I found amusing

At one site based on PHPBB I found a section on Virtual Engineering Humour. The content was “Sorry but this board is currently unavailable”. I’m still not sure what Virtual Engineering is as I’ve only ever tried Actual Engineering.

Successful Endeavours specialise in Electronics Design and Embedded Software Development. Ray Keefe has developed market leading electronics products in Australia for nearly 30 years. This post is Copyright © 2012 Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd