That Mersenne was a funny guy. Life of the party.

Last night, upon being asked to shut off his radio, a resident unleashed a Homeric torrent of obscenities. After he'd finally calmed down and complied, I remarked to another staff that "On that kid's home planet, there are 137 different words for 'fuck' ." It occurred to me that, when making a joke in which part of the humor is derived from using an exaggeratedly large number, I usually default to "137."

I'm pretty sure this is due, in part, to the fact that I think prime numbers are inherently funny. Someone said that once--Woody Allen, Larry David, Mel Brooks-- some sharp witted Jewish guy. It naturally follows that the largest prime number must be the funniest number. So I decided to see if Wikipedia had an entry about very big prime numbers, and, as it happens, there is exactly such an entry. I quote:

It was proven by Euclid that there are infinitely many prime numbers; thus, there is always a prime greater than the largest known prime. Many mathematicians and hobbyists search for large prime numbers. There are several prizes offered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for record primes.[1]

The fast Fourier transform implementation of the Lucas–Lehmer primality test for Mersenne numbers is fast compared to other known primality tests for other kinds of numbers. Due in part to this and to the historical interest in Mersenne primes, many of the largest known primes are Mersenne primes. As of June 2009[update] the nine largest known primes were Mersenne primes.[2] The last 14 record primes were Mersenne primes. Before that was a single non-Mersenne (improving the record by merely 37 digits in 1989), and 17 more Mersenne primes going back to 1952.[3]

Clearly, 137 has a very very long way to go if it ever wants to be the funniest number. As it happens, though, there is also an entry for my own pet prime number, and as it turns out, 137 is no slouch:

One hundred [and] thirty-seven is the 33rd prime number; the next is 139, with which it comprises a twin prime, and thus 137 is a Chen prime. 137 is an Eisenstein prime with no imaginary part and a real part of the form 3n − 1. It is also the fourth Stern prime. 137 is a strong prime in the sense that it is more than the arithmetic mean of its two neighboring primes.

Using two radii to divide a circle according to the golden ratio yields sectors of approximately 137° (the golden angle) and 222°.

137 is a strictly non-palindromic number and a primeval number.

Not a bad pedigree eh? Eh? A Chen prime and an Eisenstein prime and did I mention also the 4th Stern prime? Plus it's a strong prime in the sense that it is more than the arithmetic mean of its two neighboring prime. 137 is the Cousin Jeffrey of prime numbers. Don't even get me started on its primevality.

So. Yeah. It's been a pretty spectacular year, and I'm looking forward to more of the same in the next decade. I need sleep.