I'm now a quaranteen.
(do I really need to spell this one out?)
I was out at dinner with my parents a few nights ago, though I'm only getting around to posting this now. For some background, my mom is basically the nicest person in the universe, but my dad, brother and I are all capable of being assholes on a whim as long as we think it would be funny. This came up in conversation, and we got the following exchange:
Mom: I don't understand how you can be so rude when you live with me.
Me: You're too nice. We have to balance you out.
Dad: We're regressing toward the mean.
It actually wasn't all that bad at first. He didn't over-enunciate "mean" or anything. It really only became a true groaner once he added the ultimate joke killer:
"Get it?"
I was in a stats course and we were doing some regression. To estimate the parameters, we need to square a bunch of differences and add them up. This is called the "Sum of Squares," so I leaned over to my friend and asked "Why not all of them?"
Fortunately my friends are needs, too.
The presenter was talking about this trade program, and how if Congress doesn't renew it, we're going to see a huge increase in the price of pants. He said the effect of this is really regressive, since the people it affects the most are the ones who can least afford it.
I decided to chime in, "Yeah, really hits them below the belt."
Actually got a halfway decent laugh.
