It's a satire on the BBC's 1970s school programming output.
The writers know what they are doing; this parody of mathematics is exactly how real mathematics sounds like to a lay person. This is nonsense, sure: but so is the satirical poetry of Lewis Carroll and the poems of Edward Lear, and the most erudite experts in the English language derive much pleasure from reading such nonsense.
Indeed, the more sophisticated the mind, the greater the need for self-parodies such as this show.
The writers know what they are doing; this parody of mathematics is exactly how real mathematics sounds like to a lay person. This is nonsense, sure: but so is the satirical poetry of Lewis Carroll and the poems of Edward Lear, and the most erudite experts in the English language derive much pleasure from reading such nonsense.
Indeed, the more sophisticated the mind, the greater the need for self-parodies such as this show.