Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein have collaborated on a few bestsellers, notably Plato and a Platypus and Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington, in which they juxtapose serious insights with classic jokes.

First their joke:

A woman is told by her doctor that she has six months to live. “Is there anything I can do?” she asks.

“Yes, there is,” the doctor replies, “you could marry a tax accountant.”

“How will that help my illness?” the woman asks.

“Oh, it won’t help your illness,” says the doctor, “but it will make that six months seem like an eternity!”

This joke raises the philosophical question, “How could something finite, like six months, possibly be analogous to something infinite, like eternity?” Those who ask this question have never lived with a tax accountant.

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Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar…Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes and Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak Through Philosophy and Jokes were both published in 2008 by what has since become Penguin Random House (2008).