Posted by Kim on October 2, 2013, 3:50pm
More answers to your questions from Ask A Stupid Question Day!Is this a stupid question? HRA
There are no stupid questions!
When is national answer a stupid question day? Ms_Draca
I don't know that there is one. Someone in the comments, correct me if I'm wrong!
Can you explain why people say the moon is made of cheese? Rythm
Yes. Absolutely. I would be delighted. It is fascinating.
This was a common phrase in the 1500s and 1600s to mean an idea that was obviously ridiculous, something that only a fool or the most naïve and uneducated peasant would believe. As in, “That is so dumb, anyone that believed that would believe the moon is made of green cheese, too.”
Our first recorded written mention of the moon being made of cheese is most likely from The Proverbs of John Heywood written in 1546:
Ye fetch circumquaques to make me believe,
Or thinke, that the moone is made of greene cheese.
And when ye have made me a lout in all these,
It seemeth ye would make me goe to bed at noone.
If that's unreadable to you, he's basically saying, “You are making stuff up to sell me on ludicrous ideas. If I believe you you should send me to bed at noon because I'm a child that needs a nap.”
For whatever reason this phrase fell out of common use for awhile, and when we started reading phrases like this, modern audiences lost the nuance, couldn't tell that this was something that was being said sarcastically, and went around chuckling to themselves that they were so much smarter than ye olden timey people, who stupidly thought the moon was made of cheese.
This is exactly like how modern audiences don't realize that the legend of the hippogriff (a gryphon crossed with a horse) was meant to be a hysterical comedy, because audiences at the time that the poem introducing the hippogriff was published would have known that gryphons fly into unstoppable rages upon seeing a horse and won't rest until they have killed and eaten the poor equine. We just think it's a cool mythical animal and use hippogriffs in our own literature without irony.
What does my future hold?! Heimdall
Friendship and magic.
What does my future not hold? Earendill
Understanding string theory.
If I am a dog, what animal am I? Limeface
A corgi.
Has this stupid question day got stupid enough yet? Drax
It was a pleasure being stupid with all of you.
How hard must someone sneeze in order to knock off my meatball (on top of spaghetti) all covered in cheese? EonRising
I believe you will be able to achieve the correct velocity by waving a pepper mill under their nose and asking them to yodel.
How do I get accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Highjinx
Manifesting your will upon the world in subtle and constantly accidental ways. Alternatively, buy an owl, write a one page single spaced essay in quill on the topic “Why I am definitely not a muggle,” tie the essay to the owl's front like a bib, and push the owl out of a moving car somewhere in the wilderness. It will find its way to England for sure.
Enjoying hosting stupid question day yet? 
liquidchaos
liquidchaosI started enjoying it hours ago! (from when you asked this question. By the time this answer goes out, I will have been enjoying it for several days.
).Then who was phone? Goregoat
Captain Planet.
Who came up with words? Like the first words of any language, and how did they convince
others to speak that way if they didn't have a language before? Tolora
others to speak that way if they didn't have a language before? Tolora
Since this probably happened long before humans evolved, as evidenced by the number of other animals that communicate to one another in sometimes shockingly specific and flexible ways, I doubt we will ever know.
What does a fox say? wolfkill11
Chacha-chacha-chacha-chow.
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/09/what-does-the-fox-say-ylvis/
Why are things the name that we give it. Like, why is grass called grass, why is green called green? Can you even define green? Zenith
OH MY GOSH. Go to this page: http://www.radiolab.org/story/211119-colors/
Scroll down to the segment labeled “When isn't the sky blue?” Click listen. LISTEN IN RAPT FASCINATION AND AWE. Worth every second. Your jaw will be on the floor by the end and it will take you a week to pick it back up.
If questions are the expression of curiosity, what are bad jokes the expression of?Zenith
Indigestion.
Why do jokes, no matter how cheesy or how many times you've heard them still make you smile and laugh? Zenith
I think this means that you have a more patient and enduring sense of humor than me!
Stay tuned tomorrow... We have one more batch to go!
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Comments
Goat
October 4, 2013
10:21pm
Finally. Now I may rest.
That was a great answer!
Wait... I missed Stupid Question Day? Aww.
(Do you see what I did there >3>)
(Do you see what I did there >3>)
Kim
October 4, 2013
11:27pm