Genuinely curious as to your reasoning there. Why use a definite article when discussing a body of knowledge or field of endeavor? Sure, people say "the social sciences" but they also say "social science", "carpentry", "cleaning".
Therefore, if your comment was serious then I think this is a red-handed example of the maths field being snooty. :)
I was joking. You know, he's doing this purposely rambling, intricate (satirical) talk, for the purpose of mocking what he finds to be the irrelevance of the subject mathematical discovery.
Then someone (presumably from the math camp) comes along and unwittingly responds only to a tiny trivial detail, in a manner that is as meaningless as the parent believes the discovery itself to be.
Ahem. So...I guess it's not a very good joke if it has to be explained, but I got a kick out of it!
Therefore, if your comment was serious then I think this is a red-handed example of the maths field being snooty. :)