Law of the Playground

an archive of the least coherent encyclopaedia of playground insults on the internet
bananas?

Original ID   : 1075
Created On    : 2003-01-02
Last Modified : 2005-05-01


Cutting sarcastic putdown used by a maths teacher, when a pupil answers a question without stating the units.

TEACHER: “what’s the volume of a cube with sides of 2cm each?”

PUPIL: “eight”

TEACHER: “eight what? bananas?”

Pupils would often fall out of their chairs and asphyxiate with laughter.

peter t

Also accepted as an inherently funny thing , like bananas are, are elephants. Hence “Eight what? Elephants?”

Reminiscent of that stage of mental development when simply saying “mango” was funny.

Charlie W

A further alternative was:

Pupil : Sixteen

Mr. MacPherson : You nit!

Pupil : Sorry, sir - sixteen Joules

Here, the amusing similarity between ‘unit’ (the missing unit of measurement) and the ludicrously mild term of abuse ‘You Nit’ assured hilarity. *cough* As did said Mr. MacPherson’s habit of calling Richard Williams ‘Willy Bums’.

Jim A