An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar.
The first mathematician orders a beer.
The second orders half a beer.
“I don’t serve half-beers,” the bartender replies.
“Excuse me?” asks mathematician #2.
“What kind of bar serves half-beers?” the bartender remarks. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Oh, c’mon,” says mathematician #1. “Do you know how hard it is to collect an infinite number of us? Just play along.”
“There are very strict laws on how I can serve drinks. I couldn’t serve you half a beer even if I wanted to.”
“But that’s not a problem,” mathematician #3 chimes in. “At the end of the joke, you serve us a whole number of beers. You see, when you take the sum of a continuously halving function—”
“I know how limits work,” interjects the bartender.
“Oh, alright then. I didn’t want to assume a bartender would be familiar with such advanced mathematics.”
“Are you kidding me?” the bartender replies. “You learn limits in, like, ninth grade! What kind of mathematician thinks limits are advanced mathematics?”
“HE’S ON TO US!” mathematician #1 screeches.
Simultaneously, every mathematician opens their mouth, and out pours a cloud of multicolored mosquitoes. Each mathematician bellows insects of a different shade.
The mosquitoes form into a singular, polychromatic swarm. “FOOLS,” it booms in unison, “I WILL INFECT EVERY BEING ON THIS PATHETIC PLANET WITH MALARIA!”
The bartender stands fearless against the technicolor horde. “But wait,” he interrupts, thinking fast, “if you do that, politicians will use the catastrophe as an excuse to implement free healthcare. Think of how much that will hurt the taxpayers!”
The mosquitoes fall silent for a brief moment. “My God, you’re right. We didn’t think about the economy! Very well, we will not attack this dimension. FOR THE TAXPAYERS!” And with that, they vanish.
A nearby barfly stumbles over to the bartender. “How did you know that would work?”
“It’s simple, really,” the bartender says. “I saw that the vectors formed a gradient and therefore must be conservative.”
Explanation: The joke parodies a classic math joke about infinite series, where an infinite number of mathematicians ordering decreasing halves of a beer would add up to one whole beer. It escalates absurdly into a sci-fi scene with mosquito swarms and a clever physics pun: “vectors formed a gradient and therefore must be conservative,” referencing conservative vector fields from calculus, tying the math theme back into the bartender’s witty, nerdy punchline.
