Polite Dissent

12 Responses to “ Doctor Octopus Revisited ”

1. Randy
   November 8th, 2005 at 4:25 pm
   

   Sure, why not? We live in a world where comedian Bill Cosby has a doctorate. If Otto wants to make the claim that he’s a doctor, I’d say he’s in a pretty good position to make the claim.

2. David Lawson
   November 8th, 2005 at 4:43 pm
   

   Uhh… You do realize that Bill Cosby’s doctorate is legit, right? It’s a Doctorate in Education, but it’s still a doctorate. Just because the man is best known as a comedian doesn’t mean he’s stupid.

3. Jason
   November 8th, 2005 at 6:43 pm
   

   I think it’s obvious he’s a doctor. The emphasis is on Octopus in the “why do they call him that”, rather than on the doctor. He’s Dr. Otto Octavious, aka Doctor Octopus. Clearly the questioner is more surprised they call him octopus.

4. Brad
   November 8th, 2005 at 7:23 pm
   

   It’s not that Cosby has an Ed.D instead of a Ph.D., it’s that Cosby’s doctorate was honorary…

5. John
   November 8th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
   

   But Cosby’s Ed.D is not honorary; it’s an honest-to-God degree from the University of Massachusetts. His thesis was on the use of his Fat Albert cartoon series as an educational aid.

   He also holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Cincinnati, but that was awarded to him in 2001, twentysome years after he earned the one from U.Mass.

6. Jon H
   November 8th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
   

   The lead singer from the Offspring has a PhD, I think in microbiology.

   (Either that, or he’s *that* close to completing it, but is kinda busy being a rock star.)

7. Randy
   November 9th, 2005 at 7:46 am
   

   To David lawson: I never said Bill Cosby was stupid. Nowhere in my post does it say that. Bill Cosby earned his doctorate. I know that. All I said was that if Bill Cosby can earn a doctorate, why not a fictional character like Otto Octavius??

8. Josh
   November 9th, 2005 at 8:42 am
   

   To Jon H: He only needs to complete his thesis and he has his degree.

9. Scott
   November 9th, 2005 at 11:05 am
   

   But Doctor Doom got kicked out of school before he could defend his thesis or dissertation, so any degree he may have to justify the degree of Ph.D. is most likely self-awarded.

   Nobody’s likely to argue with him about it, or omit the Doctor when addressing him, though, for two reasons:
   1) The man is well-known to be a bloody genius, and a polymath at that. Any degree that Isaac Newton would have by current standards would actually be in Divinity, but if he were to somehow be resurrected you can be darn sure that faculties of mathematics and physics would be stepping over each other to award him Ph.D.s and address him as Doctor Newton.
   2) Doom would kill the insolent fool that questioned his academic credentials.

10. argott
    November 9th, 2005 at 11:38 pm
    

    His clothes make him look like a patient, not a doctor.

    Man, I could have made better use of those arms than he did.

11. kelvingreen
    November 12th, 2005 at 3:55 am
    

    Also, as head of state, I imagine Doom can award himself anything he likes, including a degree.

12. Sean Duggan
    July 8th, 2007 at 1:54 am
    

    I’ve actually heard that there are more PhD ABTs (All But Thesis) than there are completed PhDs. Apparently, that last step is a doozy…

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