Scientists aren’t known for their humor. Stephen Hawking is an exception. As the most renowned physicist and cosmologist in the world, Hawking has shown his funny side in best-selling books, television appearances and singing (or talking, rather) with Pink Floyd. Perhaps The Division Bell wasn’t that much fun, but it isn’t Mr. Hawking’s fault. He has been chasing a unified theory for over thirty years, while managing to survive a motor neuron disease, have three children, and propose the existence of primordial black holes as well as black hole radiation! He is also the first to admit the obvious. “Everyone who reads science fiction knows what happens if you fall into a black hole,” Hawking said. “You get made into spaghetti.”
Mr. Hawking’s 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, sold over ten million copies and remained on the London Sunday Times best-seller list for more than four years. It was the introduction of his genius, as well as his wit, to the public. Since then, Hawking has made numerous comedic television appearances, ranging from cartoons to late-night talk shows. He guest-starred as himself on The Simpsons, and proclaimed later that, “_The Simpsons_ is the best thing on American television.” It was 1999, and he was right.
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Mr. Hawking’s television career began, after meeting Leonard Nimoy, in 1993 with a guest-appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation. As a holographic image of himself, Hawking played poker with Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and the sentient android, Data. His humor cuts thorough his cold, synthetic voice, leveling the curmudgeonly Newton’s curtness (Newton, in fact, for all of his genius, died a willful virgin at age 84) and using his winning hand to draw attention to his arguments against Einstein’s theories: “Wrong again, Albert” Hawking says after Einstein accuses him of bluffing.
It is contiguous that Mr. Hawking held the uber prestigious Lucasian Chair of Mathematics, at the University of Cambridge, for 30 years, since Sir Isaac Newton himself held the same post in the late 17th century. Hawking is surely the only Lucasian Professor and probably the only member of the Royal Academy of the Arts to ever appear on Late Night with Conan O’Brien; he acted in a skit with none other than Jim Carrey. Supposedly, Mr. Hawking really enjoyed The Cable Guy.
Hawking’s humor was well known among the scientific world even before he entered in the public eye. He made a legendary wager in 1974 with theoretical physicist, Kip Thorne over the possibility that a distant object known as Cygnus X-1 was a black hole. Betting against his own prediction, Hawking wagered a one year subscription of Penthouse to Thorne’s wager of a four year subscription to Private Eye. It was a win-win situation for Mr. Hawking; either his work with black holes would be proven correct, or he would be informed by the fortnight of British current affairs. Hawking eventually conceded the bet in 1990. With the help of his followers, he broke into Thorne’s Caltech office and attached a concessionary note (validated with a thumb print) to the original wager, which had been framed by Thorne and hung on the wall. It is not known whether Thorne ever received the porno.
Raised in a family that was “highly intelligent, very clever, and very eccentric,” as a boy Hawking was precocious in humor as well as brain-power. He has described himself by saying, “I am just a child that has never grown up. I still keep asking these how and why questions. Occasionally I find an answer.” It is the ability to ask “how and why questions,” as well as the potential to actually answer them, that gives Hawking much of his popular appeal. Where did the universe come from? Why did it begin? The earnest nature of these penetrating questions is related to anyone who has pondered the stars. But relating to the questioner, a man enveloped with recondite science and a frightening disease, isn’t so effortless. In particular, that is why Mr. Hawking’s comedy is important. Invoking humor, Hawking becomes personable and disarming, reminding whoever is reading or listening to him that, although he may appear mentally and physically dissimilar, he’s still human.
By Michael Baptist
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