Item: “A programmer goes out to buy some milk. His wife stops him and says, ‘while there are eggs, grab a dozen.’ He never returns.”
- Oral Folklore: joke
- English
- USA
Informant Data:
Nan Hu is an Dartmouth computer science major, in the class of 2018, from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Contextual Data:
The informant first read the joke about a year ago on Reddit, a social media and content aggregating website. Although he can’t remember the exact subreddit, he knows it was one made exclusively of computer programmers. The joke was one of the top posts that day, which means it was very popular amongst the programmers who frequent that subreddit. Since the joke was posted online, its exact context is dependent upon each individual viewer. However, its general purpose to lighten the mood, and its immediate context within the programmer subreddit is still constant.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Informant’s Comments:
The informant explains that this joke relies on the audience’s understanding of how a while-loop works. Since there are always eggs in the market, the programmer continually grabs a dozen, and never returns. Although the informant has not heard this item offline, nor has he told this joke to anyone personally, he has seen this joke and many of its variations online multiple times. Due to the interconnectedness of the internet, jokes like this often get shared repeatedly, and thus are spread throughout the population.
Collector’s Comments:
This joke would fall under the stereotypes category, since it plays on the common belief that computer programmers are highly logical and lack social competence, and would therefore misinterpret such simple directions. It is also interesting to note that since the joke was posted online and can be viewed at any time, the exact context of the joke is dependent upon each individual viewer. This could indicate a transition in how our society consumes and produces folklore, as our culture shifts online.
Tags/Keywords:
jokes, while-loop, stereotypes