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Cartoon of a sweaty team mascot and players on a sweltering stadium field beside a giant thermometer and melting popsicles

Why did the stadium get so hot?

All the fans left!

😂

Vintage Wordplay

Did You Know?

The joke scores because "fans" means both the cheering crowd and the gadgets that keep us cool. The two words actually have totally separate roots: the sports kind is short for "fanatic," which comes from a Latin word for someone inspired by a temple, while the cooling kind traces back to a Latin word for a tool used to separate grain from chaff. Keeping stadiums cool is serious business, too, and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar famously used outdoor air conditioning systems to blow chilled air across the field and stands.