Editing Nicolas Bourbaki (section)

===Humor===

Humor has been an important aspect of the group's culture, beginning with Weil's memories of the student pranks involving "Bourbaki" and "Poldevia". For example, in 1939 the group released a wedding announcement for the marriage of "Betti Bourbaki" (daughter of Nicolas) to one "[[Hoist with his own petard|H. Pétard]]" (H. "Firecrackers" or "Hector Pétard"), a "lion hunter".{{sfn|Beaulieu|1999|pp=239–40}} Hector Pétard was itself a pseudonym, but not one originally coined by the Bourbaki members. The Pétard moniker was originated by [[Ralph P. Boas]], [[Frank Smithies]] and other [[Princeton]] mathematicians who were aware of the Bourbaki project; inspired by them, the Princeton mathematicians published an article on the "mathematics of lion hunting". After meeting Boas and Smithies, Weil composed the wedding announcement, which contained several mathematical puns.{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=30, 113–14}} Bourbaki's internal newsletter ''La Tribu'' has sometimes been issued with humorous subtitles to describe a given conference, such as "The Extraordinary Congress of Old Fogies" (where anyone older than 30 was considered a fogy) or "The Congress of the Motorization of the Trotting Ass" (an expression used to describe the routine unfolding of a mathematical proof, or process).{{sfn|Beaulieu|1999|p=226}}{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=110–11}}

During the 1940s–1950s,{{sfn|Beaulieu|1999|p=241}}{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=33–34}} the [[American Mathematical Society]] received applications for individual membership from Bourbaki. They were rebuffed by [[John Robert Kline|J.R. Kline]] who understood the entity to be a collective, inviting them to re-apply for institutional membership. In response, Bourbaki floated a rumor that Ralph Boas was not a real person, but a collective pseudonym of the editors of ''[[Mathematical Reviews]]'' with which Boas had been affiliated. The reason for targeting Boas was because he had known the group in its earlier days when they were less strict with secrecy, and he'd described them as a collective in an article for the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''.{{sfn|Aczel|pp=121–23}} In November 1968, a mock obituary of Nicolas Bourbaki was released during one of the seminars.{{sfn|Beaulieu|1999|pp=241–42}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.neverendingbooks.org/according-to-groth-iv-22 |title=According to Groth. IV.22 |date=1 October 2016 |website=neverendingbooks.org |access-date=2018-10-24}}</ref>

The group developed some variants of the word "Bourbaki" for internal use. The noun "Bourbaki" might refer to the group proper or to an individual member, e.g. "André Weil was a Bourbaki." "Bourbakist" is sometimes used to refer to members<ref name="numericana" /> but also denotes associates, supporters, and enthusiasts.{{sfn|Beaulieu|1993|p=31}}{{sfn|Beaulieu|1999|p=227}} To "bourbakize" meant to take a poor existing text and to improve it through an editing process.{{sfn|Guedj|p=20}}

Bourbaki's culture of humor has been described as an important factor in the group's social cohesion and capacity to survive, smoothing over tensions of heated debate.{{sfn|Mashaal|p=115}} As of {{year}}, a [[Twitter]] account registered to "Betty_Bourbaki" provides regular updates on the group's activity.<ref name="betty">{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/betty_bourbaki |title=Compte twitter officiel de l'Association des collaborateurs de N. Bourbaki |author=Betty_Bourbaki |website=Twitter}}</ref>