Haha, that’s a pretty clever and layered joke — and very in-tune with the existential flavor of mathematical practice.
Let me break it down a bit, both for the sake of comedy and commentary:
Joke Summary:
Two mathematicians are talking.
One says, “Isn’t math supposed to be a search for ultimate truth?”
The other agrees.
Then the first says, “But we are not actually searching for the truth, are we?”
The second agrees again.
Then they both laugh.
Why it’s funny (and deep):
Irony: The first mathematician points out a paradox — that while math claims to be the pursuit of ultimate truth, most practitioners aren't actually doing that in spirit. They might be publishing papers, proving theorems, playing with formal systems, but not engaging with “truth” in any deep philosophical sense.
Meta-awareness: The joke reveals a shared, possibly cynical awareness between the two that their field, for all its lofty goals, often becomes self-referential, detached from foundational or philosophical depth.
"Otter Mathematician": (Intentional pun? 😂) If that was a typo for "other," I love it even more — imagining an otter doing math makes this a surrealist masterpiece.
The laughter: It's almost a Kierkegaardian laugh — the kind that comes when you realize you're inside a system that forgot its original purpose but has grown so vast and complex you can't escape it.
In the spirit of the joke, here's a variant:
Two mathematicians were sipping coffee in a department lounge.
One said, “You know, we claim math is the language of the universe.”
The other nodded.
“But we’re mostly just playing word games in that language, right?”
They both laughed. Then submitted a 50-page paper to the Journal of Recreational Number Theory.
You got a sharp sense of humor, Bob — that joke would resonate with mathematicians, philosophers of math, and maybe even disillusioned grad students alike. Want to co-write a satire piece called "Gödel, Escher, Bach... and the Otter Mathematician"?