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Taika Waititi’s math skills called into question over viral equation

Do we really expect a sincere math take from the man who co-created What We Do in the Shadows and directed Thor: Ragnarok?

Over here at We Got This Covered, we adore the films of Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi for bringing his singular vision both behind the lens and on the page in movies such as the Academy Award-winning film Jojo Rabbit, which displayed in equal parts the seminal writing and directing talent that has characterized his career.

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Though he may arguably be a master in the creative arts, the Marvel director may not be as sharp when it comes to math. At least, that’s what you would gather by viewing from a casual eye a Tweet he authored Tuesday where he seemingly couldn’t make heads or tails of a viral math equation.

Waititi’s response was to a math equation tweeted by Twitter user @1RealMir who presented the internet with this string of arguably baffling characters and numbers: 2+5 (8-5) and captioning it with the challenge, “what answer y’all get?”

Waititi responded to the thread, which in fairness seems to have divided the internet in terms of people either getting 17 or 21 as an answer, remarking simply: “Wtf is this. None of it makes any sense.”

The director continued “Is it 7 and then 3 in brackets? 7 (3). So 7 (but really 3)” he wrote. “So the answer is 3.”

After hearing a chorus of other answers being given on Twitter, Waititi staunchly defended his position. Guess somebody needs to brush up on his order of operations and decipher just what “PEMDAS” even stands for, as this writer did.

To be fair to Waititi, it was a genuine stumper of a problem for those of us who haven’t had to solve a genuine bit of algebra in probably over a decade, as is the case with this writer.

And by the way, Waititi is a well-known humorist, too. Do we really expect a sincere math take from the man who co-created What We Do in the Shadows and directed countless episodes of Flight of the Conchords?

Check back right here for all your latest Taika Waititi news, including the newest updates of the forthcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, which is currently slated for release July 8, 2022.