The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.
College HumorA University Catechism
From “The Harvard Lampoon”
Q.W
A.I do not know.
Q.You are quite right. Who does know?
A.Nobody in America, though some people think they do.
Q.What are the objects of a university?
A.To unfit people for practical life.
Q.To whom do you refer by “people”?
A.I refer to the teachers and students alike.
Q.And what are the effects of a university?
A.To unfit the same people for life here or hereafter. This, however, is of little importance, as a university teaches that there is no life hereafter.
Q.Then a university effects more than is intended?
A.Much.
Q.What is necessary to make a university?
A.Money.
Q.Anything else?
A.Yes; a mixture of assurances and self-con——
(The rest of the catechism has been, for some unexplained reason, suppressed by the faculty.)