Author Archives: Stephanie

Asking for a Raise

Title: Asking for a Raise

General Information about Item:

  • Joke
  • English
  • United States

Informant Data:

  • Jiachen Jiang is a ’20 at Dartmouth College studying Computer Science.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • Jiachen encountered this joke on the internet, as it is one of the more popular jokes that does not require any deep understanding of computer science. This joke can be shared with anyone with the most rudimentary understanding of data structures in computer science, although experienced computer scientists would still find the joke funny.

  • Cultural Context
    • The joke depends only on knowledge of the “array,” one of the most basic computer science data structures that any student of computer science would encounter in her first introductory course. The joke plays on the pun between the word “arrays” and the phrase “a raise,” indicating that a programmer who does not “get” arrays—that is, she does not understand the function of the array or how to use them correctly—will not find a career in computer science. On the other hand, any worker who does not receive an expected pay increase might be expected to quit after some time. This joke relies on a pun basic enough that experienced and inexperienced programmers alike will be able to appreciate and share, which explains why it is one of the most popular computer science jokes we have encountered. See Use Pointers for a variation on this joke that requires a little more programming knowledge to fully understand.

Item:

Q: Why did the programmer quit his job?

A: Because he didn’t get arrays!

Transcript:

  • Stephanie: Could you state your name and background please?
  • Jiachen: Yes. My name is Jiachen Jiang, I am a ’20 and I am a Computer Science major at Dartmouth College.
  • Stephanie: Can you tell me your joke please?
  • Jiachen: Yes. So the joke starts off with why did the programmer quit his job? The answer is, because he didn’t get arrays!
  • Stephanie: Ahaha! Alright, and where did you hear this joke?
  • Jiachen: I found this joke when I was scrolling through the internet, as I often do here at this College.
  • Stephanie: Alright. And uh, lastly, why is this joke funny?
  • Jiachen: This is joke is funny to me because arrays are a type of very popular data structure within Computer Science, spelled a-r-r-a-y-s. But arrays also sounds like “a raise”, as in an increase in monetary amount earned in a job. So when the programmer didn’t get a raise, that meant that he did not understand a basic computer science… a basic computer science theory. However, that also means he didn’t get enough money in order to live a comfortable lifestyle.

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

 

Collector’s Name: Stephanie Guo

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Arrays. Programming. Puns.

Driving Off the Cliff

Title: Driving Off the Cliff

General Information about Item:

  • Joke
  • English.
  • United States

Informant Data:

  • Stephanie Guo is a Dartmouth ’18. She majors in Computer Science. She is most familiar with Java, but has also worked with Python, Javascript, and C.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • This joke would most likely appear in the company of others in the STEM fields. Although it would probably be more common among engineers, physicists, and computer scientists. Age or language, assuming translation, would not be relevant. Typically, this type of joke would be more common among groups of people who are beyond the introductory level or who only have a passing interest in a STEM field.
  • Cultural Context
    • Like the “Red Ball” joke, this mocks those within a certain field by hyperbolizing certain behaviors and much of the cultural context of that joke applies here. Typically, computer scientists spend a lot of time trying to find sources of error because a program working in one scenario does not mean it will work in all of them. Doing this usually involves a process of identifying where errors may occur by trying to create and repeat scenarios in which the program could break. This is even more relevant when post-release bugs are reported and a computer scientist must try to recreate a reported error before they can even attempt to fix it. Additionally, when the error is not related to the code and thus not within the computer scientists control, it is important to evaluate the error to estimate the accuracy of the results as a consistent and bounded error is much better than an inconsistent one. Both of these things require recreating the same error multiple times. This joke mocks this behavior by explaining how after encountering a dangerous situation, the physicist and engineer try to figure out what went wrong through calculation and  examination of the car respectively, but the computer scientist wants to try and repeat the dangerous situation before even trying to address it.

Item:

A physicist, [an engineer], and a computer scientist are driving down the road when something goes wrong with the car and it turns uncontrollably towards a cliff edge. Somehow they manage to just barely veer away before they go over the edge. The physicist tries to figure out what went wrong by doing a friction calculation. [The engineer tries to examine the car to figure out what was broken.] The computer programmer sat in the car and said, “Let’s try to replicate the error.”

*Items in brackets indicate revisions to the joke by the interviewee after the interview.

Transcript:

    • Robert: Could you please give your name and background?
    • Stephanie: My name is Stephanie Guo. I am a Dartmouth ’18 and a computer science major.
    • Robert: Could you please tell your joke?
    • Stephanie: A physicist, [an engineer], and a computer scientist are driving down the road when something goes wrong with the car and it turns uncontrollably towards a cliff edge. Somehow they manage to just barely veer away before they go over the edge. The physicist tries to figure out what went wrong by doing a friction calculation. [The engineer tries to examine the car to figure out what was broken.] The computer programmer sat in the car and said, “Let’s try to replicate the error.” [Modified for clarity according to post interview comments by the informant]
    • Robert: Could you tell me where you heard this joke and who told you?
    • Stephanie: I think I first heard this joke from my high school CS teacher back in 2013 or 2012.
    • Robert: Could you briefly explain the joke?
    • Stephanie: There are two [STEM field] characters. Two of them have a rational response to almost being in an accident while the computer scientist is being made from of here for wanting to [recreate the accident] instead of doing the [sensible] thing and walking away.

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

 

Collector’s Name: Robert Sylvia

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Interdisciplinary. Computer Science. Programming. Hyperbole.

Red Ball

Title: Red Ball

General Information about Item:

  • Joke
  • English
  • United States

Informant Data:

  • Shawn Honaryar is a Dartmouth ’20. He is a physics major. Some of his coursework has included engineering courses in addition to his physics courses.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • This joke would be said in the company of those who all belong to some STEM field. Not necessary that they all belong to the same field or that a certain STEM fields are excluded (i.e. even though  the jokes mocks engineers, engineers themselves would still enjoy hearing it). That being said it would probably be more common in groups consisting of mathematicians, physicists, and engineers over those in the other STEM fields. The age or language, assuming translation, would not be relevant.
  • Cultural Context
    • The cultural group for which this makes sense encompasses all STEM fields. It requires understanding the differences in perspective between mathematics, engineering, and physics as opposed to understanding the fields themselves. Each field values and prioritizes things differently. Engineers often sacrifice a certain degree of accuracy for improved practicality provided the model is close enough for their purposes. Physicists would want to develop a model that fully reflects the behavior of a system or phenomenon, but would still use a conceptual understanding of physics to find inventive ways to prevent it from being needlessly complicated. A mathematician would be very direct when solving problems and generally view things from the perspective of the calculations rather than the real world phenomenon that they would model. In this case, the joke highlights how in the pursuit of practicality and efficiency, engineers often rely on tables for values and formulas for common scenarios and calculations. It is typical in the STEM fields to mock themselves and other fields by hyperbolizing their faults and strengths as this joke does.

Item:

A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer are asked to find the volume of a ball. The mathematician says he will calculate the triple integral. The physicist says he will put the ball in water and see how much it displaces. The engineer says he only has tables for green balls.

Transcript:

  • Robert: Could you please give your name and background?
  • Shawn: Shawn Honaryar. I’m a physics major.
  • Robert: Could you please tell your joke?
  • Shawn: A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer are asked to find the volume of a ball. The mathematician says he will calculate the triple integral. The physicist says he will put the ball in water and see how much it displaces. The engineer says he only has tables for green balls.

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

 

Collector’s Name: Robert Sylvia

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Interdisciplinary. Hyperbole. Engineering. Red Ball.

!False

Title: !False

General Information about Item:

  • Joke
  • English
  • United States

Informant Data:

  • Alisha is a Dartmouth ’19 who majors in Government. Her familiarity with computer science comes from a course she took in high school.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • This joke could be understood by anybody who understands boolean logic, which while typically associated with programmers is not necessarily limited to them. The major limitation on context is on the medium of the interaction. This joke when presented verbally loses much of its substance. This joke would specifically come up in text based interactions such as texting, email, letters, forums, whiteboard, etc.. Many of which are just as prevalent if not more so in the current world than traditional face-to-face interactions.
  • Cultural Context
    • In boolean logic, all statements equate to either 0 (FALSE) or 1 (TRUE). The ! is symbolic for the NOT operator which simply takes an input and returns whichever the input is not (i.e. the input is 0 or 1 and returns 1 or 0 respectively). Therefore the statement !FALSE equates to TRUE. Additionally, this depends on the common understanding that some jokes are more humorous because of their accuracy. These two concepts combine to create what is essentially a pun using the vernacular of boolean logic.

Item:

!FALSE.

[Pause] It’s funny because it’s true.

Transcript:

  • Robert: Could you please give your name and background?
  • Alisha: My name is Alicia. I am a ’19. I am a government major and I took a programming course back in high school.
  • Robert: Could you please tell your joke?
  • Alisha: !FALSE..(short pause)…It is funny because it is true.
  • Robert: Could you please tell me where you heard this joke?
  • Alisha: I heard it in class.
  • Robert: Could you please give a brief explanation of the joke?
  • Alisha: Basically the ! serves as a common symbol for the NOT logic operator which returns the opposite of its input, in this case FALSE(0) so the statement was TRUE(1). It relates to the use of the terms TRUE and FALSE when describing logic operators in programming.

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

 

Collector’s Name: Robert Sylvia

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Computer Science. Boolean logic. Pun. Programming.

Recursion

Title: Recursion

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 be shared between computer scientists or others familiar with programming, or just the concept of recursion. Age should not be relevant to whether or not this joke would come up.
  • Cultural Context
    • This joke highlights the inherent paradox presented by a recursive function, a commonly used technique in programming. The recursive function depends upon itself to operate and therefore can not work unless it has already worked before. In reality this is not a paradox as typically a conditional enables the function to run the first time without calling itself. Not doing this however can create what is called an infinite loop, which is problematic. Regardless, the paradoxical nature inherent to the recursive function provides humor through its own absurdity.

Item:

To understand recursion you must first understand recursion.

Transcription:

  • 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: To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.
  • Robert: Could you please tell me where you heard this joke?
  • James: I first heard it in my CS 1 class.
  • Robert: Could you briefly explain the joke?
  • James: The basis of the joke is that a recursive function calls itself. This means it can only function correctly if the function it calls, itself, already functions correctly.

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

 

Collector’s Name: Robert Sylvia

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Programming. Recursion. Syntax.

Halloween/Christmas

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.

If Eggs

Title: If Eggs

General Information about Item:

  • Joke
  • English
  • United States

Informant Data:

  • Alisha is a Dartmouth ’19 who majors in Government. Her familiarity with computer science comes from a course she took in high school.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • This joke would make sense to anybody familiar with any standard coding language. The “if statement” syntax is both basic and fairly universal between languages so there are no restrictions on specializing in particular coding language or expertise  beyond the beginner level. Therefore this could appear even in an introductory course. This joke does not depend on the specifics of a language, computer or otherwise, so translated versions would make just as much sense. Therefore this joke is not restricted to English speakers.
  • Cultural Context
    • This joke illustrates the differences between normal languages and programming languages. Computer languages are very literal and will always follow a defined set of rules and even the slightest deviation from said rules prevents it from working correctly. Normal languages on the other hand would factor things such as common sense or social norms into the interpretation itself. This gives more leniency to syntax but still gets the desired result. This creates the humorous situation in which interpreting statements made in a human language with the logic of a computer language leads to an absurd result. This joke is meant to make fun of the precise and inflexible nature of computer languages. Even a slight mistake can result in an entirely different result. Since most programmers have had at least a few, but most likely a very large amount, times when relatively minor errors created by writing code according to human logic has resulted in many hours trying to find and fix the issue. Thus most programmers would be very familiar with the phenomenon.

Item:

A programmer is at work when his wife calls him and asks him to go to the store. She says she need a gallon of milk and if they have fresh eggs, buy a dozen. He comes home with twelve gallons of milk.

Transcript:

  • Robert: Could you please give your name and background?
  • Alisha: My name is Alisha. I am a ’19. I am a government major and I took a programming course back in high school.
  • Robert: Could you please tell your joke?
  • Alisha: A programmer is at work when his wife calls him and asks him to go to the store. She says she need a gallon of milk and if they have fresh eggs, buy a dozen. He comes home with twelve gallons of milk.
  • Robert: Could you please tell me where you heard this joke?
  • Alisha: I heard it in class.
  • Robert: Could you please give a brief explanation of the joke?
  • Alisha: Basically it is a play on the common syntax of something called an “if statement” in programming. Almost all programming languages would interpret the wife’s request as “if there are fresh eggs, buy a dozen gallons of milk” as opposed to the more common interpretation.

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

 

Collector’s Name: Robert Sylvia

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. If statement. Code structure. Syntax. Hyperbole.

Had a Byte

Title: Had a Byte

General Information about Item:

  • Joke
  • English
  • United States

Informant Data:

  • Milan Chuttani is a Dartmouth ’18. He majors in Government and minors in computer science. He is most familiar with the computer languages Java and Python. He grew up in the state of Massachusetts.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • This type of joke would be most common at the more introductory levels of programming such as in a beginner course. The depth of understanding required is quite shallow so it is easily accessible.
  • Cultural Context
    • This joke simply requires a basic understanding in computer storage space and its units. In the modern age, this probably extends well beyond just computer programmers. People interact with computers enough that while this qualifies as a programming joke, the average english speaker would have no trouble understanding the joke. In a way this reflects how important technology has become for people that information and terminology originally restricted to certain fields has become part of common vernacular.

Item:

Q: What did the computer do at lunchtime?

A: It had a byte.

Transcript:

  • Robert: Could you please give your name and background?
  • Milan: Yeah, my name is Milan. I am an 18’ and a Gov major and computer science minor.
  • Robert: Could you please tell your joke?
  • Milan: Yep, what did the computer do at lunchtime?
  • Robert: What?
  • Milan: Had a byte.
  • Robert: Could you please tell me where you first got this joke from?
  • Milan: I saw it online.
  • Robert: Could you please briefly explain the joke?
  • Milan: A byte is the smallest unit of data in computer programming. It is a play on words due to it sounding like ‘bite’ which implies eating.

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

 

Collector’s Name: Robert Sylvia

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Computer Science. Pun. Byte.

10 Types of People

Title: 10 Types of People

General Information about Item:

  • Joke
  • English
  • United States

Informant Data:

  • Milan Chuttani is a Dartmouth ’18. He majors in Government and minors in computer science. He is most familiar with the computer languages Java and Python. He grew up in the state of Massachusetts.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • This joke would be popular to those who have at least a basic understanding of programming. Understanding the binary system is a very basic and introductory part of the general programming curriculum so even beginners would likely get it. Therefore it would be very common to first hear it in an introductory course on programming. Although this joke can be said verbally, it makes the most sense when presented in written form as 10 in binary would be called “zero one”, not “ten”, but the joke requires that the teller says “ten” as mistaking 10 for “ten” in integral to the joke.
  • Cultural Context
    • This joke is essentially a pun, except instead of using a word or phrase it uses the standard numerical system in programming. This joke also is one of those that would make beginner programmers feel part of a larger group. The joke is not so complex that they would not be able to understand it, but at the same time those who do not have any experience with binary or programming would be lost. In this way, it could give programmers of all skill levels a feeling of being “in” on something like a secret handshake or something along those lines. This builds a welcoming atmosphere for beginning programmers.
    • Milan encountered the joke on a T-shirt, making this particular piece a kind of material folklore.

Item:

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don’t.

Transcript:

  • Robert: Could you please give your name and background?
  • Milan: Yeah, my name is Milan. I am an 18’ and a Gov major and computer science minor.
  • Robert: Could you please tell your joke?
  • Milan: Yep, there are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don’t.
  • Robert: Could you please tell me where you first got this joke from?
  • Milan: I saw it on a T-shirt somewhere and thought it was funny.
  • Robert: Could you please briefly explain the joke?
  • Milan: On the shirt there was a ‘1’ and a ‘0’ as opposed to a ‘10’ which in binary is two. So it’s funny because at first you think it’s ten types of people, but it’s actually just two.

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

 

Collector’s Name: Robert Sylvia

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Binary. T-shirt. Pun.