Peter Norvig may be an expert on scientific methodology, but when it comes to comedy he's not the first source I would turn to. Steve Martin, an authority in the field, said "Comedy is not pretty"[1] and that clearly overrides Norvig in the matter of this article.
George Carlin makes many excellent points on the subject of science, but most relevant here is when he raises the question of which party is really the subject of an experiment[2].
"The truth is, Pavlov's dog trained Pavlov to ring this bell just before the dog salivated." -George Carlin
Perhaps the real study here is to test how many people will take a joke a little too seriously just because it looks like a scientific paper.
George Carlin makes many excellent points on the subject of science, but most relevant here is when he raises the question of which party is really the subject of an experiment[2].
"The truth is, Pavlov's dog trained Pavlov to ring this bell just before the dog salivated." -George Carlin
Perhaps the real study here is to test how many people will take a joke a little too seriously just because it looks like a scientific paper.
[1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_Is_Not_Pretty!
[2] http://todayinsci.com/C/Carlin_George/CarlinGeorge-Quotation...