http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MathematiciansAnswer

Well, hard to refute that...

Monty: Dad, is there a word to describe answers that are completely correct but entirely useless under the circumstances?

Prof. Jones: Yes, yes there is. Irregular Webcomic! Dad, is there a word to describe answers that are completely correct but entirely useless under the circumstances?Yes, yes there is.

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"Could you describe Mathematician's Answer here?"

Yes.

"...Would you describe it here?"

Yes.

"..."

Well, of course I'll describe it to you! First you asked me if I could describe it, then you asked if I would describe it. But you never actually asked me to describe the trope to you.

"Alright, then. Describe Mathematician's Answer here."

If you ask someone a question, and they give you an entirely accurate answer that is of no practical use whatsoever, they have just given you a Mathematician's Answer. A common form of this trope is to fully evaluate the logic of the question and give a logically correct answer. Such a response may prove confusing for someone who interpreted what they said colloquially.

Examples include requests for favors being superficially interpreted as requests for information ("Can you do me a favor?" being interpreted as "Are you capable of doing me a favor?"). Such examples are often used in linguistics and philosophy of language to illustrate how context and convention determine implicit meaning: "Do you have any spare pillows?" "Yes. Thank you for asking." People do not usually ask for trivial information or information they already possess, which is how competent speakers know not to provide the Mathematician's Answer. This is also a favorite of English teachers and Grammar Nazis, frequently going through something similar to "Can I come in?" "I don't know, can you?" "Uh, may I come in?".

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Another common form is when a character is asked "Is it A or B?" they will respond "Yes" as if it were a question of Boolean logic rather than clarifying which specific one is the case (though this can also occur if the responder does not know the answer, or considers both answers correct. This crops up a lot in Real Life, especially in the world of computers). This occurs because a question of the form "Is the capital of Australia Melbourne or Canberra?" is ambiguous between "The capital of Australia is either Melbourne or Canberra. Which one is it?" and "Is it the case that the capital of Australia is either Melbourne or Canberra?". A logician may mistake the former for the latter, to the questioner's frustration.

A third variant is when a "How?" question (as in "By what method?") is answered with an adverb or adverbial phrase, as if the question had been "In what manner?". For example: "How did you get past the guards?" "With difficulty."

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Can be used by characters for reasons ranging from snarky humor to intentional obfuscation to being extremely Literal-Minded — AI and other Literal Genies by their nature are very likely to fall into the last category.

Can overlap with Shaped Like Itself when the question is seeking a description, and with Captain Obvious, as these answers tend to be self-evident for anyone with a brain. Usually doubles as a Cryptically Unhelpful Answer, when the "mathematician" is deliberately trying to confound the questioner. Compare Non-Answer, which is a vague "answer" which does not answer the question at all. Mildly related to What's a Henway? and Not Actually the Ultimate Question. Can also overlap with Comically Missing the Point if the speaker genuinely thinks he/she is giving an answer.

The trope name comes from a family of jokes about the supposed habit of mathematicians to make unhelpful answers. For example: a man in a hot-air balloon asked someone where he was. "You're in a balloon," he answered. The rider concluded that it was a mathematician that said that, because the answer was perfectly correct and completely useless. (The joke sometimes continues with the mathematician deducing that the man in the balloon is a manager, because he has risen to his position with a lot of hot air, has no idea where he is or where he is going, and yet claims this is the fault of the innocent person standing below him.)

All of Them is a subtrope that's its own Stock Phrase, as an answer to a question of quantity. See also What's a Henway?. Contrast Implied Answer when the question isn't answered at all, and the meaning is quite clear. Often the answer is Trivially Obvious. Related to Rhetorical Question Blunder: the person who was asked gives a logical answer that ruins the spirit of the question.

May be a feature of Anti-Humor when given as the punchline to a joke. A well-known example is "Why did the chicken cross the road?" "To get to the other side".

Examples:

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A commercial for Lyrica begins with a voiceover along the lines of: "I was wondering why I had muscle pain, so I asked my doctor. It turns out, connected to muscles are nerves which send pain messages to the brain." Also a Captain Obvious moment. "Nerves send pain messages to the brain?! Noooo!" This may be a rare example of an unintentional Mathematician's Answer. The idea could be to inform the audience that pain doesn't just exist in the pained part of the body, and that not all treatment of pain actually has to directly affect the pained part (something which may seem obvious to most people — especially if you know about phantom pain — but not to everyone).

A beer commercial has a guy describe something as beautiful, refreshing, etc. as he grabs a beer near a woman. The woman asks him if he's describing the beer or her; his reply is, "Yes."

A commercial for Grey Poupon mustard has one Rolls-Royce pull up to another, and they both roll down their windows. One man asks, "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" The other replies, "But of course!" — then signals his chauffeur to drive away.

A Nike "Find Your Greatness" spot goes something like this: "Is it speed or endurance? Does it happen in two hours or four or six? Is it finishing strong or barely finishing? Yes." "It" is ostensibly greatness.

A series of ads for AT&T feature a man talking to young children in a kindergarten classroom. Here's one of the exchanges : Man : Are you competing for cutest kid right now?

Girl : Yes.

Man : What place are you in?

Girl : Kindergarten?

Man : That's adorable.

: A board advertisement for McDonald's late-night menu has this gem: "Late dinner or breakfast? Yes." In one of the Ronald & Me commercials, Ronald, teaching mathematics, puts a different number of potatoes in each of his pants pockets and asks the kids what he has now. His pants fall down, and one of the potatoes answers "Really heavy pants." I guess we could call it an inversion, this being a non-mathematical answer in an example involving actual math.



Anime and Manga

Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple example! Random guy on the beach: Hey, beautiful, where are you from? Shigure: My... home. My... home.

From the English dub of Lupin III: Lupin: Which direction do you think the helicopter will be coming from? Goemon: Up.

Rurouni Kenshin has one of these during the Jinchu Arc: Chou: So who are we goin' after? The Boss? Or Battousai?

Saito: Yes.

Bleach: When a very young Uryuu asks his father why he hates being a Quincy, Ryuuken replies "because there's no money in it", leaving Uryuu so shocked and troubled that he runs to his grandfather in tears, asking if Ryuuken's answer is a truth or lie. Souken points out that, because Ryuuken has a family to raise, it can be viewed as truthful. In fact, Ryuuken is telling the truth from any angle - being Quincy never pays the bills regardless of whether or not there's a family to raise. However, Uryuu wants to know why Ryuuken hates being a Quincy, yet neither Ryuuken nor Souken actually answer that question. They both sidestep it completely.

Jonah in Jormungand is awful at math, so when he's basically asked 22 times 3 while the Logistics crew are at an airport, he answers "A bunch."

Fairy Tail: During Lucy's fight with Byro, her opponent uses a concoction that causes him to transform into a giant octopus. Lucy: What the heck is that!?

Virgo: An octopus tentacle.

This exchange in Haruhi Suzumiya, when the group encounters a giant cricket in an alternate dimension: Kyon : What is that!?

Koizumi : A camel cricket.

Kyon : Got it. Thanks, : What is that!?: A camel cricket.: Got it. Thanks, Captain Obvious

In My Hero Academia, Todoroki somehow manages to completely refurbish his dorm room, making it look like it was taken wholesale out of a traditional Japanese house, complete with tatami mat flooring and a shoji door replacing the sliding glass door out to the veranda. His classmates ask how he was able to do it all in under a day entirely by himself. Todoroki's response? "I worked really hard."

In Chobits, Hideki and Chi receive a mysterious file with a map attached. Hideki wonders out loud what it is, and Sumomo declares that she knows, announcing that it's a file attachment. Hideki gets annoyed but Shinbo explains that Sumomo is a less advanced persocom who has trouble grasping abstract concepts like that.

Kotaro of Zombie Land Saga uses these to handwave any big questions. How did he raise the seven girls from the dead? Well, just like in a zombie movie! Why are they alive after they died? Well they're zombies, duh! Does he know what the population of Saga is? Of course he does, it's small! Needless to say, the girls are very frustrated by this.

A typical line from Rotom Dex in the anime version of Pokémon Sun and Moon does this whenever forced to choose between two or more equal probabilities. "I calculate a 50% chance that our friends went this way, and a 50% chance that they went this other way!" Other characters are quick to point out that he's not being very helpful, assuming they don't just ignore him entirely.

Audio Plays

In I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus, when the Clem-clone asks "How are you, Doctor?" Dr. Memory replies in a flat monotone: "The Doctor is on."

In The Goon Show episode, "The Lost Emperor", young Neddie Seagoon is working in the Victoria and Albert Museum late at night when Moriarty and Grytpype come in and pull a gun on him. Grytpype: Draw the curtain Moriarty. Now then is there anyone else in the building apart from you?

Seagoon: Yes, two others.

Grytpype: What are they doing?

Seagoon: Holding me up with a pistol.

Film  Animated

Let's Play

Out of the Achievement Hunter crew, Ryan is incredibly likely to use this tactic as a way of invoking Exact Words or Loophole Abuse, though he also does it to be a Deadpan Snarker. For instance, this example after he shot Jeremy in their 5th Trouble in Terrorist Town Let's Play: Jeremy: Ryan! Why'd you shoot me?! Ryan: I was trying to kill you.

Music

When asked what his songs were about, Bob Dylan responded, "Some are about three minutes, some are about four minutes..."

Elvis Costello, Brutal Youth, "My Science Fiction Twin": "They ask, 'How in the world he does all these things,'/ and he answers, 'Superbly'"

Jez Lowe has an example in his song "High Part of the Town": They tried to teach geography, but I found it much too hard/When they asked me where does coal come from, I answered next doors yard

When asked whether she was a singer of country, pop, blues, or jazz, Crystal Gayle replied, "Yes."

"Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow", a music hall number by Joseph Tabrar. The title is the singer's answer when her teacher asks her why she brings her cat to school.

Tabletop Games

The Seraphim of In Nomine are masters of this, since they are angels of truth who are forbidden to lie. Technically true answers keep them from the edge - if sometimes just barely.

Theatre

In 1776, when John Hancock asks about the absent New Jersey delegates: John Hancock : I'm concerned over the continued absence of 1/13th of this Congress. Where is New Jersey? John Dickinson : Somewhere between New York and Pennsylvania.

In Chicago: She'd say, "What's your sister like?" I'd say, "men."

In Hamlet: Polonius attempts to get some information on Hamlet to report back to the king, but not wanting to betray his regicidal scheme and not wasting an opportunity to bother his girlfriend's intrusive father, Hamlet gives the most obvious and unhelpful answers he can. Polonius: What are you reading?

Hamlet: Words, words, words.

In The Pirates of Penzance, the Major-General wants to find out something about the men in piratical outfits who propose to marry his daughters: Major General : May I ask  this is a picturesque uniform, but Im not familiar with it. What are you? Pirate King : We are all... single gentlemen. This is also an ironic inversion of the trope, as the answer uses the ambiguities of language to provide the information he wants ( that the pirates are in fact all eligible bachelors in good standing, being actually English gentlemen ) while appearing not to.

In Iolanthe, when Strephon is required to prove that the title character is really his mother, he points out she gave birth to him and raised him from childhood, and therefore she must be his mother.

Used multiple times in Twelfth Night. When Malvolio tells Olivia that a man wants to see her and will not be turned away: Olivia : What kind of man is he?

Malvolio : Why, of mankind.

Olivia : What manner of man?

Malvolio : Of very ill-manner. Also, when Viola meets Feste: Viola : Save thee, friend, and thy music: dost thou live by thy tabour?

Feste : No, sir, I live by the church.

Viola : Art thou a churchman?

Feste : No such matter, sir: I do live by the church; for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church.

The Taming of the Shrew gives us this exchange concerning Petruchio: Babptista: When will he be here?

Biondello: When he stands where I am and sees you there.

Other