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So, a Higgs Boson walks into a church...

Jason Weisberger at 9:23 am Thu, Jul 5, 2012

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Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

**Update: Apparently the joke in this lolpic was sourced from Brian Malow**

Related: Gettin' Higgy With it: A Roundup of Higgs Boson Jokes on Twitter

Jason Weisberger is Boing Boing's publisher. He often does what he ought, instead of what he should. On instagram and twitter he is @jlw

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Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

  • nem0fazer

    Looks a bit FSM to me. Just sayin’…

  • agrovista

    A Higgs boson walks into a bar, the barman asks “what’s the matter?”

  • aaronmhill

    From now on, whenever someone asks why it’s called “The God Particle”, I am going to say “it’s because of this dumb joke. It has nothing to do with God, really.”

    • Sin Trenton

      Actually, god has nothing to do with Higgs boson. It’s just an attempt to hijack science for superstition.

      Besides, its real name is actually Hogwart’s boson.

      • aaronmhill

         …right.  I know. Hence the snarky response to someone calling it “The God Particle”.

    • http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd

       I’m still confused about that. If it exists, why is it called the god particle?

      • http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

         and promptly the god particle disappears in a puff of logic.

        • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

           After saying “I didn’t think of that”.

  • bzishi

    A Higgs boson sits down on a swivel chair. A coworker asks “what’s the matter?” The Higgs boson responds “I can’t spin.”

    • Richard Dagenais

      This one sounds clever; if we were at a party I would have laughed. But honestly it went over my head.

      • AnthonyC

        Spin is a quantum mechanics property that all fundamental particles have. Electrons, protons, and neutrons have spin- 1/2. Photons and many others have spin-1. The Higgs is predicted to be the only one with spin 0. Hence it “can’t spin.”

  • http://twitter.com/BonzoDog1 BonzoDog1

    I’m sure “God Particle” infuriates crazy Christians and Muslims alike. It reminds me that Fred Hoyle could have saved us all a lot of grief — and outfoxed the theologians — if he had named the origin of the universe “The Touch of God” rather than the “Big Bang.”

    • AnthonyC

      That would not served as well for his goal of mocking the idea, given the nature of public discourse at the time.

    • Timothy Krause

      A rarer, more fascinating discovery than the God particle itself would be someone of a secular bent who didn’t feel the need to cavil at the title “God particle.” Now that would be a rare discovery indeed.

    • Craig Brummer

      It’s even crazier to think that the original formulator of the Big Bang theory was actually a Capuchin friar, a Catholic priest.  One for the “Catholics love science” team.  Go figure.

  • Tara Fredette Malow

    This joke was written by the brilliant and funny Brian Malow, aka @sciencecomedian. You can see the bit here: http://fora.tv/2009/11/08/Science_Laughs_Science_Comedian_Brian_Malow#chapter_07

  • BDiamond

    The Large Hadron Collider actually opened a window into a parallel universe, in which Magnum, P.I. was real instead of a TV show. (Stay with me on this.) In that universe, Jonathan Higgins actually served in the British Royal Navy instead of the Royal Air Force. While in the Royal Navy, Jonathan served as the foreman of a deck crew. In essence, the Hadron Collider discovered … the Bosun Higgins.

  • CLamb

    I would expect a Higgs Boson, or any Boson, would be more comfortable in a fundamentalist church.

  • Teller

    Here’s the usually depressing Elizabeth Kolbert’s depressing pun: A Higg’s Disappointment?

    http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/07/is-the-higgs-boson-a-disappointment.html

  • timquinn

    Yeah, right. How is the bartender going to have a conversation with something that only stays around for a nanosecond or so. Talk about commitment issues!