You know Dobble, that card game where you have to find a matching symbol on two different cards with lots of symbols on them? It has 55 cards, and each card has a single symbol that will match any other card in the deck. How the heck did the creators of the game make it work?! It’s a vital question. Fear not – Matt Parker does the maths.
In a wonderful hour of brilliant math problems and self-deprecating one-liners, Parker hits the sweet spot between head-scratching conundrums and some perceptive, relentless standup. The “standup mathematician” is an Australian YouTuber with over a million subscribers. His content ranges from the maths of winning Monopoly to questioning whether the Las Vegas Sphere is really a sphere. In his show, he distils some of these ideas while using his live platform to toy with his audience.
Parker knows his fanbase and, vital to a lot of his comedy, he knows just how nerdy people can get. I’m surprised he opens up bits of the show to the audience. He uses Python, the coding language, live, and I’m sure it just takes one person to suggest a line that could break it all.
Parker is well aware that when he slips up in his YouTube videos, his fanbase will, in typical internet fashion, never let it go and insist they can do it better. This tension ensues in a hilarious observation of what is possible when a bunch of angry nerds come together, to the point where they can outpace MIT in their mathematical endeavours. It’s great stuff.
Parker also offers one of the best explanations of the complex way in which Large Language Models work I’ve heard, and he uses the existential threat they pose to fantastic comedic effect.
For me, the true litmus test of the success of this show is that, even though I know zero, nil, about maths, I was enthralled throughout. In his own words, “maths is useless and for everyone.” By the way, for those who do dabble in getting triggy with it, Parker offered to sign calculators.
Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker Does the Maths is running until 25 August at 33 Pleasance Courtyard – Beyond. Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of Steve Ullathorne, provided to The Student as press material.
