It’s one of the oldest math jokes, told by teachers and students every year:
Question: What did the acorn say when he grew up?
Answer: Geometry (Gee, I’m a tree).
The corny joke has been cited in print since at least 1962.
4 November 1962, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), sec. 3, pg. 16, col. 8:
High schoolers should know:
Q. What does an acorn say when it grows up?
A. “Geometry.”
(From the book Riddle-De-Dee by Bennett Cerf.—ed.)
1 March 1964, Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette, “Buz Sawyer” comic strip by Roy Crane, comics section:
WHAT DID THE ACORN SAY WHEN HE GREW UP?
OKAY, WHAT DID THE ACORN SAY?
GEOMETRY! “GEE, AH’M A TREE!” HEE, HEE, HEE, HEE! GEOMETRY!
Google News Archive
16 July 1965, The Deseret New (Salt Lake City, UT), “Tell Me” by A. Leokum, pg. 2B, col. 4:
What did the acorn say when it grew up?
Geometry.
Google News Archive
23 February 1966, The Free Lance-Star (Fredereicksburg, VA), “Fun Time—Riddle Box,” pg. 19, col. 2:
What does an acorn say when it grows up?
Geometry.
Google Books
Jokes, Puns, and Riddles
By David Allen Clark
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1968
Pg. 202:
Question: What did the acorn say when he grew up?
Answer: Geometry (Gee, I’m a tree).
Google Books
Mind Your A’s and Q’s:
Useless Questions to Dumb Answers
By Jack Stokes
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1977
Pg. 26:
A. Geometry
Q. What did the little acorn say when it grew up?
Google Books
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Einstein
By Gary Moring
Indianapolis, IN: Alpha Books
2000
Pg. 26:
One of the areas in mathematics that interested him most was geometry. (A little math humor: What did the acorn say when he grew up? “Gee, I’m a tree.”)
Twitter
Kassey Green
@kassey_green
My math teacher:
“I have a joke! What did the acorn say when he grew up? ... Gee, I’m a tree!”
We started our geometry unit today
9:51 PM - 2 Apr 2015
myCentralJersey.com
OVER THE EDGE: The three certainties of (my) life
Bradley W. Wadlow, @BradWadlowMyCJ
12:09 a.m. EDT April 9, 2015
There are three things in life that are for certain: Death, taxes and I can’t do math. Not necessarily in that order.
(...)
Don’t get me started on what little acorns say when they grow up.
The answer: Geometry (gee, I’m a tree).
Feel free to insert a groan here.
But, that “gee, I’m a tree” joke is about the only thing I remember from Robert Bradman’s geometry class back in high school (sorry, Mr. Bradman, wherever you are), and explains the fact why I went into journalism and further bolsters the theory that I need heavy-duty medication.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
Recent entries:
•“Welcome to growing older. Where all the foods and drinks you’ve loved for years suddenly seem determined to destroy you” (4/17)
•“Date someone who drinks with you instead of complaining that you drink” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing the evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Government creates the crises so it can ‘rescue’ you with the loss of freedom” (4/17)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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