Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2023 August 21

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August 21

Majorgeeks photo

https://m.majorgeeks.com/news/story/random_photo_2024.html

Which is the right answer? 5.168.2.6 (talk) 08:16, 21 August 2023 (UTC)

Can't access it. Can you restate the question in that link? RudolfRed (talk) 00:10, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

What number does "two zero two four" convey? Suggested answers are 2024, 0044, 0024, or 2044. It's really not a math question.--2404:440C:2A59:1200:C03D:B465:91D0:CA0 (talk) 09:36, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

The only way to understand what is meant is to see it in a wider context. The filename you posted says "2024", if that helps solve your conundrum. --Jayron32 10:51, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

First, there is no "question" as such. The display is formatted like a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire question, but in the space for the question, it just reads "Two Zero Two Four". Any version of WWTBAM that I've seen uses actual questions.

Second, I tried to find some original context for the image by using TinEye to search for other copies of it, but what I mostly found were a lot of places where it was reproduced without context. However, on this Reddit page, someone suggests In other words, considering the man's skin color and expression, I think this is racist "humor". that the point is that in African-American Vernacular English ("Ebonics"), "two zeroes, two fours" might be pronounced like "two zero two four".

Third, I tried sorting by "oldest first" in TinEye, and found several images of the same man's image but with a different question and answers: a real, if hard, question (about Eyjafjallajökull), and maybe even real answers. On this page people suggest that this was a joke from Saturday Night Live, the man possibly being Kenan Thompson. This page in Spanish also attributes this version of the image to SNL.

So I think SNL must have created the image originally as a joke about difficult game-show questions, and then someone else decided to change the text to make a racist "joke" about dialect, and people who thought it was funny (added later: or who just found the expression funny) then started reposting this version.

--142.112.221.64 (talk) 19:38, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

Great reply, thanks for looking it up. RudolfRed (talk) 00:28, 24 August 2023 (UTC)