Exactly. It's much a "stickier"/"easier" mnemonic to tell a(n English-speaking) grade-school student "the area of a circle is 'pi r squared'" and let them giggl

Exactly. It's much a "stickier"/"easier" mnemonic to tell a(n English-speaking) grade-school student "the area of a circle is 'pi r squared'" and let them giggle at the incongruity of the fact that no, silly, pie is round! It builds a connection to a thing they already know, and it's "silly"/"absurd" enough to be "sticky" in terms of memorization.