this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
1029 points (99.8% liked)

Science Memes

16647 readers
2520 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] maculata@aussie.zone 11 points 2 years ago (8 children)

Could someone please explain the “he (the genie) would just give it to you” part?

This aside has me curious about motivations etc.

[–] affiliate@lemmy.world 26 points 2 years ago (5 children)

my interpretation of it is: when you ask a genie for something they’ll give it to you, but with a nasty twist. e.g., if you ask for a lot of money they’ll say okay, then give you the money, and then tell you it’s all marked notes from a recent bank robbery or something.

but since this element is so stupid, there’s no twist necessary. the element itself is the nasty surprise.

[–] maculata@aussie.zone 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh I see. I never associated monkey’s paw type twists with the genie tale. Perhaps I need to re-read the source myths.

[–] overcast5348@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Monkeys paw = you get what you asked for but it takes a nasty path to get there. Example from the OG story, the parents ask for money, then their son dies, and they get the insurance money.

Genie = chooses to ignore the spirit of the wish and gives you something that technically meets the criteria. Ex: you ask for a "hot chick", and get a boiling hot baby chicken.

You can try to work around the genie's trickery with more and more precise wording till there isn't any ambiguity. The monkey will fuck you over anyway, because fuck you, that's why.

99.99% of the comments on r/monkeyspaw are just granting wishes like they're genies and not like they're a monkey's paw, and it rubs me the wrong way.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)