Item:
If you put a million monkeys on a million keyboards, one of them will eventually write a Java Program. The rest of them will write Perl Programs.
General Information about Item:
- Oral Folklore: joke
- English
- USA
Informant Data:
Nathan Yu is a 19 year old Asian Dartmouth CS major in the class of 2019 from Norman, Oklahoma.
Contextual Data:
In computer science there are many different programming languages, some of which are more difficult than others. Java is known as one of the more elite languages that is often times very challenging to code in. On the other hand, Perl Programs are relatively easy to write. Many beginner computer science students start by coding in Perl.
Transcript of Associated File:
Ketav: “Hey Nathan, hope your day is going well. I understand that you are a computer science major here at Dartmouth and was wondering if you are familiar with any computer science folklore?”
Nathan: “I think there is this one joke that I’ve heard, not sure if that qualifies. ‘If you put a million monkeys on a million keyboards, one of them will eventually write a Java Program. The rest of them will write Perl Programs’.”
Ketav: “Hmm, not exactly sure what that means, would you mind explaining it?”
Nathan: “Sure! So essentially what the joke is saying is that it is sort of making fun of Perl Programs since it’s a common thing for many computer science students and professors to know that Java is a very difficult program to code in when compared to Perl. Often times many beginners start coding in Perl”
Ketav: “I see, and when did you first hear this joke?”
Nathan: “The first time I’ve heard this joke was in my 11th grade computer science course. My professor at the time was teaching us the difference between Java and Perl programs before we familiarized ourselves with Java programming. I heard the joke a few times after from a few of my older friends who found out we learned how to use Perl Programming first”
Ketav: Great, thanks Nathan!
Nathan: Anytime, feel free to let me know if you have any questions!
Informant’s Comments:
The interviewer first heard this joke in his 11th grade computer science course. The professor was guiding them onto the path of learning Java and was comparing them to Perl programs since they had been learning about Perl Programs beforehand. The professor wanted to accentuate to them the extent of difficulty of learning Java compared to Perl.
Collector’s Comments:
This joke can be classified as verbal folklore. This could be classified as a joke because it is saying that if a million monkeys, animals that obviously have no coding experience, were to be given a keyboard and randomly type letters, only one would create a Java code while the others would all create a Perl code. Of course, the monkeys probably would not create either version of the code but what the joke is saying is it is instilling humor while also explaining how difficult a Java code is.
Tags/Keywords:
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