A Total
Carnegie Mellon University Move ("Total CMU Move," or "TCMUM"), defined as
prefacing an uber-intelligent question or statement with something to the effect of, "I know this is a dumb question," or, "This is probably the stupidest thing you'll hear today," as some subtly
patronizing way of letting everyone around you know you're smarter than them -- as though it were an utterance so far below the usual standards of your stunning intellect that you have to apologize for it.
Pierre de Fermat: "So I have this equation here, it's kinda hard to solve... But it goes something like this, a^n + b^n = c^n..."
Student: "Uh, Professor Fermat, excuse me for sounding like a
total idiot asking something as basic this, but it appears to me that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy that equation for any
integer value of 'n' greater than two. Or am I just like
way off here?"
Everyone thinking in unison: "Total CMU Move, dude."
