"What if" math joke: the derivative of $\ln(x)^e$ Randall Munroe, the creator of xkcd in his latest book What if writes (p. 175) that the mathematical analog of the phrase "knock me over with a feather" is seeing the expression $ \ln( x )^{e}$. And he writes regarding this expression: "it's not that, taken literally, it doesn't make sense - it's that you can't imagine a situation where this would apply."
In the footer (same page) he also states that "if you want to be mean to first year calculus students, you can ask them to take the derivative of $ \ln( x )^{e}$. It looks like it should be "$1$" or something but it's not."
I don't get the joke. I think I am not understanding something correctly and I'm not appreciating the irony. Any help?

One is more accustomed to see something like $e^{\ln x}$, which is indeed equal to $x$. Its derivative is $1$. 
In general, anytime you see exponentials elevated to a logarithm, you think this is going to simplify. In this case you have just a power of a logarithm, but that power is $e$, so it "looks" like an exponential, but of course it is not. 
Not one of the best xkcd in my opinion though :P
Ah by the way, apparently there are a lot of people who are confused about xkcd jokes, and so explain xkcd was born… I used it a lot :D
