Difference between revisions of "764: One Two"

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(The Count can't count as high as the Hottentots.)
 
(→‎Explanation: To save glancing down at the Discussion.)
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From the book One, Two, Three, Infinity by George Gamow
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{{comic
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| number    = 764
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| date      = July 9, 2010
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| title    = One Two
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| image    = one two.png
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| titletext = Cue letters from anthropology majors complaining that this view of numerolinguistic development perpetuates a widespread myth. They get to write letters like that because when you're not getting a real science degree you have a lot of free time. Zing!
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}}
  
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Chapter one
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==Explanation==
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Big Numbers
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The comic parodies {{w|Sesame Street}}, an American children's TV show. The Count is a character in Sesame Street who teaches counting to viewers. The Count usually laughs after counting numbers, an innocent version of the sinister laugh that is a stereotype of old Hollywood horror films.
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How high can you count?
 
  
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There is a story about two Hungarian aristocrats who decided to play a game in which the one who calls the largest number wins.
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In the book {{w|One Two Three ... Infinity}}, the writer describes African tribes that only have words for numbers up to three and their inability to distinguish or comprehend larger numbers. The {{w|Pirahã language}} of Brazil was originally thought to only have numerical terms for one, two, and many, although it is now thought these words are relative terms like "few" rather than absolute terms like "one." Similarly, see {{w|Edmund Blackadder}} try to teach {{tvtropes|BumblingSidekick|Baldrick}} [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u99LjJ32qOo to count beans]. Also worth mentioning, some {{w|Constructed language|conlangs}} (Most notably {{w|Toki Pona}} with 0, 1, 2, 5, many[https://omniglot.com/language/numbers/tokipona.htm]), only have very limited number choice, while [https://www.google.com/amp/s/sirterrypratchett.tumblr.com/post/159070715962/everyone-knows-trolls-cant-even-count-up-to/amp the Discworld's trolls] are less limited than their contemporaries imagine and may even be linguistically related to whoever is behind the comic's Count.
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"Well," said one of them,"you name your number first."
 
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After a few minutes of hard mental work the second aristocrat finally named the largest number he could think of.
 
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"Three," he said.
 
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Now it was the turn of the first one to do the thinking, but after a quarter of an hour he finally gave up.
 
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"You've won,"he agreed.
 
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Of course the two Hungarian aristocrats do not represent a very high degree of intelligence and the story is probably just a malicious slander, but such a conversation might actually have taken place if the two men had been, not Hungarians, but Hottentots. We have it indeed on the authority of African explores that many Hottentot tribes do not have in their vocabulary the names for numbers larger than three. Ask a native down there how man sons he has or how many enemies he has slain, and if the number is more than three he will answer "many." Thus in the Hottentot country in the art of counting fierce warriors would be beaten by an American child of kindergarten age who could boast the ability to count up to ten!
 
  
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One, Two, Three, Infinity is available as a free pdf download. (Use here is also considered fair use under US copyright)
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In the title text Randall predicts that anthropology majors will write to complain that this view of primitive tribes is a myth no longer held true by today's anthropologists. He makes a jab at them saying they would have time to write letters to complain about things because they don't have to spend time doing real science and thus real research.
  
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Mouse over text:
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==Transcript==
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:[A television set with The Count from 'Sesame Street'.]
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:The Count: One! Ah ah ah... Two! Ah ah ah... ...Many! ah ah ah...
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:Primitive cultures develop Sesame Street.
  
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Cue letters from anthropology majors complaining that this view of numerolinguistic development perpetuates a widespread myth. They get to write letters like that because when you're not getting a real science degree you have a lot of free time
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{{comic discussion}}
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[[Category:Language]]
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The comic contains the dialog that parodies an American children's TV show known as Sesame Street.  The character is known as the Count who helps with counting numbers in sequence. The character of the Count usually has a laugh after counting numbers that is directed to be an innocent version of the sinister laugh that is a stereotype of old Hollywood horror films. In the book One, Two, Three, Infinity the Hottentots can count to three but do not count numbers higher than three. The TV Count instead of continuing the number sequence to three says many in place of three. 
 
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Randall in his mouse over text mocks the anthropology majors for what is possibly considered a widespread myth among current anthropology majors about primitive tribes and their ability to count. Randall makes a jab at the anthropologists saying they would have time to write letters to complain about things because they don't have to spend time doing real science and thus real research.
 

Revision as of 17:11, 6 January 2023

One Two
Cue letters from anthropology majors complaining that this view of numerolinguistic development perpetuates a widespread myth. They get to write letters like that because when you're not getting a real science degree you have a lot of free time. Zing!
Title text: Cue letters from anthropology majors complaining that this view of numerolinguistic development perpetuates a widespread myth. They get to write letters like that because when you're not getting a real science degree you have a lot of free time. Zing!

Explanation

The comic parodies Sesame Street, an American children's TV show. The Count is a character in Sesame Street who teaches counting to viewers. The Count usually laughs after counting numbers, an innocent version of the sinister laugh that is a stereotype of old Hollywood horror films.

In the book One Two Three ... Infinity, the writer describes African tribes that only have words for numbers up to three and their inability to distinguish or comprehend larger numbers. The Pirahã language of Brazil was originally thought to only have numerical terms for one, two, and many, although it is now thought these words are relative terms like "few" rather than absolute terms like "one." Similarly, see Edmund Blackadder try to teach Baldrick to count beans. Also worth mentioning, some conlangs (Most notably Toki Pona with 0, 1, 2, 5, many[1]), only have very limited number choice, while the Discworld's trolls are less limited than their contemporaries imagine and may even be linguistically related to whoever is behind the comic's Count.

In the title text Randall predicts that anthropology majors will write to complain that this view of primitive tribes is a myth no longer held true by today's anthropologists. He makes a jab at them saying they would have time to write letters to complain about things because they don't have to spend time doing real science and thus real research.

Transcript

[A television set with The Count from 'Sesame Street'.]
The Count: One! Ah ah ah... Two! Ah ah ah... ...Many! ah ah ah...
Primitive cultures develop Sesame Street.


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Discussion

I think this is a reference to how many ancient cultures have three versions of grammatical, besides singular and plural, most early languages have dual as well, normally. 173.245.52.190 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I believe this is also a reference to the discworld universe, where the trolls have a base three number system which is mistaken to be primitive by most (basically one, two, many, many-one, many-two, many-many and so on)85.164.251.29 09:03, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

You are correct, Discworld gets the one two three reference from the one two three infinity by George Gamow. The line the Count uses in the comic is almost a direct quote in the first chapter about the primitive Hottentots tribe. The one other thing I failed to mention in my original creation of this page was the myth about vampires and OCD. That dropping seeds while fleeing vampires was a way to escape because they were forced to compulsively count the seeds. However I wasn't sure how many would remember the myth. Thank you for looking at this. Understudy (talk) 19:23, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

So they are all counts not one Count?
And the stake through the heart routine counts as well?

I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait (talk) 21:45, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

Actually, the Discworld trolls have a base four number system, not three. Sciepsilon (talk) 02:19, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Excellent, I have not read the series in many many years. Thank you for the information. Understudy (talk) 22:09, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Bold text 173.245.52.190 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I like that the TV has many channels. 108.162.238.157 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I hope they send chain letters Elvenivle (talk)

There's a parody in this blog post. --172.68.46.23 06:17, 30 December 2016 (UTC)

This feels very Gary Lawson-y. Can't explain why, but it just does. 172.64.236.102 18:54, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

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