- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Transcription
(We’re taking a calculus final. The TA is a well-known Lord of the Rings fan, and we’ve had running LotR jokes all semester.)
TA: “Okay, guys, everyone look at me. We’ve been over the rules, but just in case: no notes, pencil your answers in on the scantron sheet, and graphing calculators only – no more ‘can I just used my cell phone’ nonsense.”
Student: “[TA’s name], my calculator batteries just died! What should I do?”
TA: “Here, I’ve got a big box of spares.”
Student: *struggling* “I can’t get this packaging open…”
Student 2: “Here, I’ve got a pocket knife.”
TA: “And I’ve got a pair of scissors if you need them.”
Student 3: from the back of the room “OR MY AXE!”
(Everyone starts laughing.)
TA: “The only axes allowed on the exam are in the graph section.”
(Everyone groans.)
TA: “Oh, come on, you’re in a math class. Deal with the math jokes.” (The professor enters with a stack of exams. With him are two exam proctors.)
Professor: “Tolkien jokes already, [TA’s name]?”
TA: “Hey, I didn’t start it.”
(The professor starts handing stacks of exams to the TA and proctors.)
Professor: “But I’m about to finish it. [TA], take these exams down the left flank. [Proctor 1], follow the desks down the center. [Proctor 2], take your exams right, along the wall.”
(At this point, many of the students have realized where this is going: Theoden’s lines from 'Return of the King.")
Professor: “Forth, and fear no problems! Solve! Solve, students of calculus! Points shall be taken, scores shall be splintered! A pencil day! A red-ink day! Until three thirty!”
(The professor pulls out a pencil, holding it out like a sword, and runs down the first row holding it out. Students hold up their pencils, hitting his as he passes.)
Professor: “Solve now! Solve now! Solve to good grades and the class ending! MAAATH!”
Entire Class: “MAAATH!”
Professor: “MAAAAATH!”
Entire Class: “MAAAAAATH!”
Professor: “Forth, exam-takers!”
(The entire class rises to their feet and gives him a standing ovation. A week later, we get an email from the professor.)
Professor: *at the end of the email* “PS: I appreciate all of you who wrote in their evaluations that I was the one professor to rule them all, but the best one yet was the student who called me ‘Mathrandir.’”
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So, I normally am the last one to say this, but…this obviously did not happen.
Still a good story though.
Yeah the “Not Always…” stories are entertaining but many of them, I have to suspend a lot of disbelief.
It definitely could have happened, its just a moderately high effort joke. With the right class and building on shared buy in over a semester or more its not that wild that someone would come up with the idea to do something like this. After all even if it is fake someone came up with the idea just as a written joke.
Like I said, I’m usually the last one to levy these accusations. I tend to trust stuff unless I have a reason not to. If it hadn’t literally ended with “and then they all clapped”, there’s a decent chance I’d have believed it. That chance goes up from “decent” to “very high” if it didn’t have the entire class getting involved and yelling back.
