“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”

–Albert Einstein

All you need is love – and tuition

LONDON (Reuters) – A university in Liverpool has launched a Master of Arts degree in The Beatles, the city’s most famous sons, and called the qualification the first of its kind.

Liverpool Hope University says on its website that the course entitled “The Beatles, Popular Music and Society” consists of four 12-week taught modules and a dissertation.

I wonder if they offer a minor in which they teach you how to make these outfits?

“There have been over 8,000 books about The Beatles but there has never been serious academic study and that is what we are going to address,” said Mike Brocken, senior lecturer in popular music at Hope.

“Forty years on from their break-up, now is the right time and Liverpool is the right place to study The Beatles.

“This MA is expected to attract a great deal of attention, not just locally but nationally and we have already had enquiries from abroad, particularly the United States.”

The university said it was the first postgraduate taught course on The Beatles in the United Kingdom, and possibly the world.

“Possibly the world?” So potentially there are more idiot ’schools’ offering these programs? And the spokesman for Liverpool Hope University couldn’t be bothered to research that?

I say give them the title. I would like to think that Liverpool Hope University is carrying the torch for the entire universe with respect to first and stupidest post-graduate program in the history of time.

What, pray-tell, are you qualified to do when you complete this *ahem* advanced degree?

• Start a tribute band?
• Run your own Beatles’ tour bus in Liverpool? “And out the lefthand window you’ll see Penny Lane…”
• Get a bit part in Cirque du Soleil’s “Love”?
• Stalk Yoko?
• Oh, wait. I know! Teach in the Masters of Arts program at Liverpool Hope University!

On the other hand, maybe this ridiculous-sounding program is actually an indictor of a new trend? Distraught by the seeming hopelessness of traditional ’safe’ careers in banking, finance, and accounting, today’s youth are seeking out alternative education curriculum? Could it be that The Vanessa Wolf School of Sarcasm and Mockery For Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too is no longer just a silly pipe dream!?