What's the funniest highbrow joke you've ever heard?

Here's a classic highbrow joke that combines humor with intellectual references:

A photon checks into a hotel and the porter asks him if he has any luggage. The photon replies: “No, I'm travelling light.”

This joke plays on the scientific concept that photons, being massless particles, always travel at the speed of light, making the phrase "travelling light" both literal and humorous13.

Another example that blends science and humor:

Why are quantum physicists terrible in bed? Because when they find the position, they can’t find the momentum, and when they have the momentum, they can’t find the position.

This joke references the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in quantum mechanics, which states that you can't know both the position and momentum of a particle simultaneously3.

Lastly, a joke that combines philosophy and humor:

Jean-Paul Sartre is sitting at a French café, revising his draft of Being and Nothingness. He says to the waitress: "I'd like a cup of coffee, please, with no cream." The waitress replies: "I'm sorry, Monsieur, but we're out of cream. How about with no milk?"

This joke plays on Sartre's existentialist philosophy, highlighting the absurdity of the situation with a clever twist on his request13.