3 Body Problem's Einstein Joke Explained, How It Connects To The Dark Forest

Season 1 of the Netflix series 3 Body Problem ends without explaining the joke told by Ye Wenjie in episode 7. But we know what it means. Get the full joke explanation, how Ye Wenjie's Albert Einstein joke relates to The Dark Forest, and what will happen in 3 Body Problem season 2. Plus, see Albert Einstein playing his violin in heaven while God plays "Take The A Train" on sax.

[colbysecl]

Loved this and perfect timing because I just finished the last episode.

[themanofconnor]

"God won't like that, he's a saxSOPHONist."

Nothing else to say, i just really like that 😁

[mspointsfre]

I like the idea of the humans getting around the alien spying by communicating in purely metaphors and allegories.

[robr]

Great explanation; I missed the hidden meaning because I was looking for the humor, and there was none. It's really more of a riddle.

[kingcobra]

This series is smarter than I originally thought. The Author is cool.

[awesomesauce]

But here we are sending messages and golden records into space with our exact location 😂

[TakashiKomuroHSOTD]

She mentioned Einstein specifically because there is a bust of his head sculpture next to the books.

[wwlee]

Netflix better fund the second season. Got to see the "Dark Forest."

[chungwayne]

In the original work, Ye Wenjie gave two axioms to this person: first, survival is the primary need of civilization, and second, civilizations continue to develop and expand, but the total amount of matter in the universe remains constant. She also introduced him to two concepts: the Chain of Suspicion and the Technological Explosion, without saying more. At that time, Luo Ji (the Black Brother in this show) did not understand, and it was not until much later that he realized. In this drama, there is a mention of Einstein and the violin, which I guess is related to gravitational waves and string theory. Additionally, on Ye Wenjie's bookshelf at home, next to Einstein's bust, there are two books: "Game Theory" and "Fermi Paradox", which is somewhat similar to the original work. Perhaps this is the key to finding a way to resist the Trisolaran civilization.

[EllissDeeyoume]

I just finished the second book and at the end when Luo Ji (Saul in the show) describes the dark forest I got a pit in my stomach and chills down my spine. I will never look at the night sky and all of those stars up there the same way. Such a great series.

[OliviaGuo-xz]

This joke confused me a lot like Santi...I'm a book fan and the original two clues in book are more friendly to me...

[franka]

I've seen other videos describing this but yours is the best one I think. Thanks for posting. The story is subtle and you can watch it and miss something like this easily. I got the "don't mess with God" idea while watching, but there is more to it than only that. Great writing.

[Steve-hmze]

Interesting - tho I think Douglas Adams already predicted what will be the final outcome...
"the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came across - which happened to be the Earth - where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog.”

[timreeves]

This is a great video, but besides the means of how to destroy the aliens, she was also demonstrating how to communicate from now on our plans so the aliens will not understand it. The joke is the means itself. They established the aliens cannot lie and do not get our metaphors (most aliens would not as it is a very specific cultural thing). Her friend and partner was excommunicated by the sant ti just by telling them little red riding hood, the most basic child story we have and they did not get it. I think people missed the import of that whole scene. The aliens could not get how a wolf could pretend to be human and how little red did not know immediately it was a wolf. It went right over their heads and all they got was "we are liars". We can get it at age 4, but they were just clueless and had no ability to think in metaphors and to understand even basic fiction.

The "joke" she told was purposefully bad, it wasnt funny. That was the point I thought too. She was telling him explicitly they can communicate by jokes and metaphors, as the aliens do not get them. So Sual and others moving forward can communicate plans on how to stop them and move science forward, and the aliens will only know they are communicating something important, yet would not be able to decipher it. That is why they tried to kill Saul as they "got" Ye told him something important..but did not understand what.

This dialog was great because it is so well written and can even be argued is a metaphor for Ye's life. She was Einstein and the aliens god. They kicked her in the balls too and did not understand not to play with god.

Now how the UN knew she communicated with him? Kind of a plot hole.

[eduardo]

After finishing the series I dedicated a lot of time to reading the Dark Forest book. When I finished it I came back to rewatch the series with a couple of friends, and when we got to the joke I audible went "OH SHIT, I GET IT NOW!". My friends asked me to explain it to them, but I didn't and said that it was best to wait. Or even they don't get the joke yet.

[mojoneko]

I didn't know about this series until I watched this. Thanks!

[cybervigilante]

Actually, any civilization within 70 light years has already been receiving old "I Love Lucy" reruns.

It was a wordplay. God plays Sax - Sophon, who doesn't allow humans to play with string theory. The message I think is that they can't understand the joke, that level of abstraction and that can help humans communicate. This scene happened before the installment of the Wallfacer project. In the book, Ye Wenjie has another paragraph that explains the dark forest.

[SaranpatSereewiwattana]

Aside from the encapsulation of complex messages, the joke itself is a pun and I found it amusing. You know... Never "Play"😂 with God.

[frankboal]

Giant Freakin Robot I enjoy the show even more now since you have explained the joke/riddle. I fear that Netflix will pull a Netflix and not follow up with a 2nd season, but thanks to your comment section I now know of the Tencent series. Thank you.