Title: Halloween/Christmas

General Information about Item:

• Joke
• English
• United States

Informant Data:

• James Sylvia is a Dartmouth ’19. He majors in Government. He took both CS 1 and Engs 20, both of which are programming courses. He is most familiar with Python and C, but also has some small experience with Matlab. He grew up in Massachusetts.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context
  • This joke would generally only come up in groups of people who have some understanding of programming or electronics. Since numerical systems with bases other than 10 are a basic part of understanding how computers work, it is basic enough that any introductory course in programming or electronics would be a potential place such a joke would be encountered. Additionally, this is a joke that would make more sense presented in text rather than verbally due to the importance of the ‘==’ logic operator in the joke as well as the common written shorthand for October and December being Oct and Dec.

• Cultural Context
  • There exists a concept of a numerical base for any numerical system. Our traditional normal numerical system is the decimal system which has a base of 10. Without going into detail, the base of a numerical system is equal to the number of single digit values that exist within it. This comes up often in programing and electronics because computers operate in a binary system which has a base of 2 to reduce electronic error. This understanding is often expanded into other numerical bases to elaborate how binary works among other things. Which system is being used is often denoted by 3 letters before the number itself. For the octal and decimal systems, this notation just so happens to be the same as the shorthand of October and December respectively. Those who understand the octal system know that 31 in the octal system is  8*3+1*1=25 in the standard decimal system. Hence the terms Oct 31 and Dec 25 are equivalent values as expressed by the ‘==’. This joke therefore is a type of pun made from the dates of Christmas and Halloween when looked at from the perspective of somebody who understands numerical bases.

Item:

Q: Why do programmers mix up Halloween and Christmas?

A: Because Oct 31 == Dec 25.

Transcript:

• Robert: Could you please give your name and background?
• James: My name is James. I am a ’19. I am a government major and I took a both CS 1 and ENGS 20, two programming courses, at Dartmouth..
• Robert: Could you please tell your joke?
• James: Why do programmers mix up Halloween and Christmas.
• Robert: Why?
• James: Because Oct 31 == Dec 25. It is funny because 31 in the octal system is 25 in the decimal base numerical system. The ‘==’ symbolizes an equivalence statement in logic operations.
• Robert: Could you please tell me where you heard this joke?
• James: I first heard it in my CS 1 class.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Collector’s Name: Robert Sylvia

Tags/Keywords:

• Joke. Boolean logic. Numerical bases. Pun. Programming.