A famous bit of dialogue from the train scene in North by Northwest, which was on TCM tonight.
Eve Kendall: Roger O. Thornbill… What does the “O” stand for?
Roger Thornhill: Nothing.
I think your reaction to this line is a good indicator of your mindset.
If your first thought was that this was a deep but succinct meditation on the nature of self-identity or the lack thereof, you’re a film buff.
If instead your first thought was that this was a snappy pun on the typographical similarity between the letter “O” and the number “0,” with the humor derived from the dichotomy between the very different concepts of “nothingness” connoted by those, you’re a mathematician.
And if you actually spent time on the web researching examples of humor using as its basis the aforementioned dichotomy between the concept of the empty set and the (non-empty) set of symbols whose sole purpose is to identify it, you’re beyond professional help.
