Funniest thing to happen in a lecture?

Right, none of these are happenings as such (nor were they necessarily funny), but I'll post them anyway:

Back when I was in first year, we had Vladimir Dotsenko (we miss you Vlad) for linear algebra. He used to say otherwise ordinary things in the funniest of manners. At the beginning of the second term, he announced that we would have an exam on the 6th March, and added in his deep, Russian voice, "Uh, that also happens to be national womens' day..."

Our mechanics lecturer, Dr. Kovacs, had a rather dry sense of humour. When teachng us about Newton's laws, he used the example of shooting a monkey/your enemy/an arts student. Mind you, I've heard he's gone more PC with the whole thing, replacing "bullet" with "tranquiliser dart."

On our first day of analysis with Paschalis "Pete" Karageorgis, he got heckled by a student who refused to accept any of his explanations. After five minutes debating pedantic irrelevancies, Pete says, "Uhh, this is going to be a long year..." The tension was relieved in a burst of laughter and a round of applause.

During further calulus with Richard Timoney, he would often write a problem on the board, face the class and say, "Right, we're going to solve this problem now." Then he'd look at the board, scratch his head, look back at the class and say, "Actually, no we can't". I'll never forget his explanation of double integration - "Now imagine you're baking an uneven cake..."

Meanwhile, in physics, at the start of our second week, we got a visit from the then head of school, who came in carrying a big box and told us that these forms were important and that we were going to fill them out and hand them in as soon as possible. He opens the box, looks in with bewilderment and announces that the box is empty.

When we had John McGilp for oscillations, he had a rather entertaining way of teaching us normal modes - bopping his hands and head from side to side rapidly (the so-called "eigenfrequencies dance").

During first year material physics, Prof. Blau demonstrated the perfect way to end a failing relationship - with a big tub of liquid nitrogen.

And finally, this wasn't a lecture as such, but it was a presentation in a lecture theatre. We were in the Schroedinger for Stefan Hutzler and Denis Weaire's talk and foams and rheology. At the end of the presentation, Dr. Hutzler, Dr. Moebius and one of his postgrad students gave a performance of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" (they're part of his research interests you see) complete with ukulele, guitar and saxophone while physoc members blew bubbles from the crowd. In the words of the guy sitting beside me, "Am I Dreaming?"

Doing some four dimensional calculus.

Student: I'm having a hard time visualising this. Can you show us some animations?

The lecturer sticks his arms out and says "What? Am I not animated enough for you?"

I may also share the Pokemon incident in Geometry when I have the time.

Fringe wrote: »

I may also share the Pokemon incident in Geometry when I have the time.

I'm incredibly intrigued.


This happened just last week, during an explanation of how ODEs can be applied to Hooke's law.

Lecturer: *thick spanish accent* "So this is Hooke's law. The first time I read this I thought it said Hooker's law. But it is not hooker it is hooke! Hooker, heheehehe!"


And let's not forget the all time classic:
Lecturer: "So if I toss a coin what is the probability of getting head?"
*laughter from class*
*puzzled look on lecturer before realising his mistake*

blubloblu wrote: »

Sea urchin orgies...

And now i tell ya.......

blubloblu wrote: »

Sea urchin orgies...

Not funny... just confusing... and quite tiring on one's hand.

Entered lecture sober, was legally drunk by end. Argued with lecturer, who finally conceded that part of a slide he was using was wrong. He had been using the same slide since 1988 (yes 1988) and this was 2002/3.

Major respect earned.

blubloblu wrote: »

You, or the lecturer?

Lecturer never realised that I had a shot glass and a friend did the refills.

This didn't happen to me but to a friend who was a medical student.

There was a Doctor in one of the teaching hospitals who was also a Vet. He's now a lecturer in UCD. He was coming onto rounds after a shift working in a meat factory (double jobbing, as it were) and was slightly late. In his haste,he put on his clinical coat and walked into the wards.

When he turned around to demonstrate something to his assembled students, the onlookers erupted into laughter. He was wearing the wrong clinical coat... instead of his fresh,clean hospital one, the words " QK Meats Ltd" was printed on bold lettering on the back of his white coat. I'm not sure what the patient thought of him, but the students seemed to find it rather funny.

blubloblu wrote: »

Think it was a French or another language tutorial.

Yeah, it was JF French, I think. He apparently started trying to teach them German instead...

Degsy wrote: »

Any idea what he did to get expelled?

http://www.universitytimes.ie/?p=2423

languagenerd wrote: »

http://www.universitytimes.ie/?p=2423

Oh my Goodness.

Has anyone read that article? Nobody expects a college newspaper to have the skillset of an established media publication, but... Jesus. Melodramatic much?

At this moment the whole group agreed, by the exchange of sideways glances of shock and disbelief, that there was something not quite right, and clearly this man was not in fact a tutor sent to help with our tutorial’

“It was such a surreal experience, I didn’t know whether to burst out laughing or crying