From Engadget:

a duo of researchers at the University of Cincinnati have built a computer program “that is able to get a specific type of joke, one whose crux is a simple pun.” By loading up a database of words and then using relational programming to detect when a pun-involved joke is uttered, the bot can respond by laughing out loud and creeping any bystanders completely out.

Yet more proof, as if any was needed, that the pun in the basis of all humour. Or that puns are the lowest and cheapest form of humour.

Pick one.

Greetings Earthlings,

I write this from space. That is to say, the space between my mountain of cables and mountain of hard drives. For I have just finished editing the most ambitious Planet Nerd ever.

This week, we focus on NASA.

Our favourite agency is under fire, and we feel honour-bound to defend the men and women whose great deeds fuel our own delusions of grandeur.

From alcoholism to kidnapping to sabotage, one-by-one we demolish the criticisms and restore the good name of NASA. It is our United Federation of Planets. And the Space Shuttle is our Enterprise. And the ISS is our Deep Space Nine. And Neil Armstrong is our James Tiberius Kirk. Blah blah I’m sure you get the idea.

Just go watch it already! 10pm, Channel 31. Or, wait and see it on the web whenever I get around to encoding it!

Live Long and Prosper,
Captain Dan T. Walmsley of the Starship Nerdterprise