Title: A Carton of Milk and Eggs Joke
General Information about Item:
- Genre and Sub Genre: Verbal Folklore: Joke
- Language: English
- Country where Item is from: United States
Informant Data:
- Maximilian Wieland is is a Senior (Class of 2017) at Dartmouth College who is completing his Economics and History double major with a minor in computer science. He decided late in his Dartmouth career to pursue a computer science minor as he became interested after taking an introductory course. As he is not a computer science major it was interesting to see his take on the humor in this field of study.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context/Cultural Context: This joke plays on knowledge of the commonly used “IF” statements in most programming languages. This sort of statement depends on the input of an initial function then if that input is met, a predetermined outcome is returned. “IF” statements are one of the most basic coding tools that most learn in introductory courses. Jokes like this are often told between computer science students or those in academia as it requires a basic understanding of how syntax works in code. As a result jokes are formed around how such a sentence structure can lead one to take statements too literally as a computer would.
Item:
- This item is a very technical joke that requires basic knowledge of “IF” statement and to be able to identify it in an interaction between two individuals. Typically in the form of a request, which acts as the initial condition, followed by an “IF” serving as a conditional statement, then followed by a secondary request. The joke works best if the secondary request is a numerical value of sorts that has no relation to the first request because if a relationship is specified then the act of confusion is canceled out.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript of Joke:
A wife says to her husband, a computer scientist:
“Could you please go to the market and buy a carton of milk and if they have eggs please buy 6”
So the husband goes to the supermarket and comes back with 6 cartons of milk
When she sees that the wife asks: “Why did you do that?”
And the husband replies: “Well they had eggs.”
Informant’s Comments:
- Max said he heard this joke when first learning about “IF” statements in one of his first computer science classes.
- Commented on the general personalities of computer scientists saying that like the “IF” statement many are very literal individuals who have trouble with social queues and take things very mechanically.
Collector’s Comments:
- This joke is a very simple, yet slightly technical joke. It’s a terrible joke that is so bad that it’s only funny because it is so bad. It really requires good delivery with the ending stressed for it to illicit even a simple “ha-ha.” The audience is also very targeted at individuals who will understand the joke or else it would be interpreted as if the husband had just misunderstood what his wife wanted and the recipient of the joke would not find it funny.
Collector’s Name: Marwan Zelmat
Tags/Keywords:
- Verbal Lore, Joke