WhatsofunnyNEVER TRUST AN ATOM. THEY MAKE UP EVERYTHING.
What’s so funny about this? If you’re only listening to this joke then you might think I’m talking about some guy named Adam, A-d-a-m, as in the husband of Eve. In fact Eve might even agree with the joke, but if she couldn’t trust Adam, then who was there left for her to trust? But whatever may be true about the trustworthiness of men named Adam, they are not the subject of this joke. The actual subject is a homonym of Adam, spelled a-t-o-m, yet still pronounced atom. Atoms have been called the building blocks of the universe. Scientists once believed that an atom was the smallest unit in the universe. They said, all matter was composed of atoms. This was the case until Einstein and others came along showing that an atom could be split into at least three sub-components, namely, electrons, protons and neutrons. The result of splitting some of these atoms was the atomic bomb. Then some other guys discovered that these atomic particles could not only be split, but they could also be fused, that is, smashed together. This resulted in an even more powerful explosive, the hydrogen bomb. Later on, still other scientists discovered that there were even smaller sub atomic particles that composed electrons protons and neutrons. I’m sure we haven’t reached the end yet, but we might have, because these teeny, teeny particles can’t even be called matter, they’re really tiny bits of energy. Remember it was Einstein who proved that matter and energy were the same. As with everything else in the universe these atomic particles never stop moving, so it’s never been possible to “catch” and stop one to actually see it.
Anyway, this is supposed to be a joke, not a physics lecture, so let’s jump back to atoms. If we agree that all elements are made up of different combinations of atoms, then what the joke says is true, atoms make up everything. But then why can’t we trust them? It’s because the expression to “make something up” means “to lie”, to “fabricate, a story.” So if I made up this whole story about atoms, then I’m lying, .and you can’t trust me. But since I said that you can’t trust atoms, then that means you can trust atoms, or can you?
And THAT’s what’s so funny!