Basel Jokes

The famous genius Jara da Cimrman worked in many branches. One of them was Philosophy.
He created a philosophical system called "Externism". Its roots are in solipsism.
A solipsist says: "The world does not exist. The only real thing is myself. Everything exists only in my mind."
Jara da Cimrman reversed the principle. In his lecture read at the world philosophical congress in Basel, Switherland, he declared: "I do not exist. The only thing that is real is the external world (thence 'externism')."
He was severely criticized by many oponents and one of them (Cimrman's traditional rival) thought he could make everybody laugh at Cimrman by saying: "If Jara Cimrman states that he does not exist, how is it possible that he formed his philosophy?"
Everyone thought that this reasoning cannot be beaten.
But Jara answered in a way that became part of the history of philosophy (so called Basel Reply): "When I do not exist, it more...