I once took a class taught by a sly French-Canadian lecturer with a propensity to chuckle at his own jokes, as though they were intended primarily for his own amusement. One of my classmates, a Polish immigrant with all the correct Euro-liberal attitudes (atheist, socialist, vegetarian, etc.) liked to engage our teacher in debates about religion. One time, this student tried to short-circuit the debate with the common trick of challenging his opponent to concede belief in something so out of touch with modernity that his position would seem laughable.
