In this
paper I am going to analyze the word play in about twenty jokes having either as
a topic or as a target computer related entities. Most of the jokes are
analyzed according to The General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) developed by
Salvatore Attardo and Victor Raskin, in terms of knowledge resources (KR) as
following: SO (script opposition), LM (logical mechanism), SI (situation), TA
(target), NS (narrative strategy) and LA (language). For some of the jokes,
anyway, I have adopted a more general linguistic approach when the pun could
not be analyzed properly only within the frame of The General Theory of Verbal
Humour.
Computer
jokes are a separate category of jokes with their special features among which
are the usage of specialized lexis, and hence the necessity of computer
background knowledge and sometimes even different logical mechanisms, which are
typical of the syntax of computer programming languages. Most of those jokes
are grouped in the sub-categories ‘Programmer jokes’ and ‘Structural jokes’,
while these, in which the humorous effect is produced rather by playing with
widely known computer terms are divided in the sub-categories ‘Jokes about
computer problems’, ‘Jokes targeted at OSs, software, software and hardware
producing companies’, ‘Misinterpretation of terminology’ and ‘Word play with
computer terminology’.
I
will start by analysing a joke dealing with one variety of computer jokes –
programmer jokes:
J0:
Q: Why are
there so many jokes about blondes and only a few jokes about computer programmers?
A: Because
everyone but blondes understands blonde jokes, while it's only programmers, who
understand programmer jokes.
What it noticeable in this question-answer pair joke is the fact that
it has two targets – blondes and computer programmers. Thus we don’t have an
opposition between two scripts only, but there are three scripts involved.
First, we have the opposition between lack of knowledge and possession of
knowledge shared by the vast majority of people, and second, we have the
opposition between possession of knowledge shared by the vast majority of
people and possession of professional knowledge. These two oppositions result
in the indirect opposition between professional knowledge and lack of
knowledge. The logical mechanism in J0 is analogy. The situation is inquiry
into the reason for the difference in number of blonde jokes and programmer jokes.
Blonde jokes have as target the minority of blonds and apply to blonds
the stereotype of stupidity. These jokes emphasize on the fictional difference
between the mental abilities of blondes and these of the other people. Blonde
jokes are easy to understand and sometimes even oversimplified in order to
achieve a more striking effect. On the contrary – programmer jokes are
generally considered difficult to understand because of the specialised lexis
used in them and also because of their target, which is often an entity too
specific to be known even by people with good computer literacy.
J1 is a good example for a programmer joke.
Jokes about
programmers
They reflect the conflict between reality and virtual reality, which are
supposed to be often mistaken by programmers.
J1:
A
programmer had been missing from work for over a week. As there were heaps of
work to do and clients were getting angry, the boss decided to call him up but
nobody answered the phone. Then his colleagues went to his flat and rang at the
door – nobody answered. They broke the door down, walked into the flat and
called him by his name. Again – there was no answer. Nothing was to be heard
but the sound of the running shower. They went to the bathroom and saw him
sitting in the bathtub – he was obviously dead and his skin was already bluish
and wrinkled. They stopped the water and only with great difficulty managed to
wrest the bottle of shampoo from his clenched fist. They read the instructions:
“Lather, rinse, repeat”.
J1.1:
Q: How to
kill a programmer?
A: Give him
a shampoo bottle with the instructions: “Lather, Rinse, Repeat”.
J1: SO artificial
language/natural language interpretation; LM irr.; SI investigating the reason
for the programmer’s disappearance/death; TA computer programmers; NS simple
narrative; LA irr.
The word “repeat” in natural
language stands for the process of executing an action over and over again,
while the duration of this process can be limited either by factors intrinsic
to the doer or by factors specific for the environment. In nature repetition is
strongly limited by physical laws (no perpetual
motion machine can exist, for example), while theoretically any
action can be repeated to an abstract infinity. Nevertheless, infinite loops
are rarely, if ever, productive. In computer programming, in some artificial
languages like Pascal, “repeat” is a keyword that requires definite syntax:
repeat
…
until <expression>
This function will loop
until the <expression> evaluates to true. The condition is checked every
time after the subject statement is executed. Without the second keyword –
“until” and an <expression> it would be impossible to compile the program
containing the keyword “repeat”. Anyway in J1 some of these considerations are
overlooked and the possibility of executing an infinite loop is set as a
premise for the joke to be possible.
Perhaps the idea of an
infinite loop itself is perceived as threatening by the human mind. Since
smiling has been proved to have evolved from a grimace, expressing fear and/or
threat hiding fear, it is possible that we sometimes find certain things we are
deeply afraid of funny. The uniformity of an infinite loop, unnatural as it is,
may prove to be one of them.
However here it is not the
infinite loop that immediately provokes laughter. It is rather the script
opposition and the programmer’s mistaking reality for a kind of virtual reality
that makes up the joke.
The programmer reads the
instructions on the shampoo bottle and when he reaches the word “repeat” he
starts executing an infinite loop of hair washing, which results, in some of
the longer versions of the joke, in his dying of starvation or exhaustion in
the bathroom. The cause is a potential professional deformation, which may
develop in people who use artificial languages and it is undeniable that only a
programmer would read the instructions on a shampoo bottle and think of it as
an infinite loop. Therefore J1 could have been invented only by a programmer
and most probably will be understood only by people who are familiar with such
program languages, while for the average reader the text remains neutral, there
is no SO and “repeat” will never be recognized as the punchline of the joke.
The irrelevant at first
sight background information – about clients, the programmer’s boss and
colleagues and their unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with him –
contribute to a great extent to the final effect of the joke. Since so many
facts (or rather narration of authentic-sounding events) are enumerated, the
listener tends to “forget” about the NBF character of the narrative and the
punchline “repeat” becomes less expected. Thus J1 is much funnier than its
shorter version – J1.1.
J2:
A: I save
the file.
In J2 it is again the
confusion between reality and virtual reality that makes up the joke. SO in
this case is attractive woman/picture of an attractive woman; LM – referential
ambiguity; SI – a dialogue between friends/asking for advice; TA – most probably
computer addicts, who do not have any personal relationships or even, as
exaggeratedly stated, any visual contact with women outside the Internet; NS –
question-answer pair; LA colloquial expression (‘hot chick’), computer
terminology (‘save the file’) – signals the change in script.
J3:
Q: Why do
programmers never use an elevator to get to the 12th floor?
A: They
push the button for '1', then button for '2' but they never find the enter key.
J3 is similar to J2 but in
J3 the opposition is between the choose-floor-button script and the computer
keyboard script; LM – false analogy; SI – an inquiry about the reason why
programmers never use an elevator to get to the 12th floor; TA – computer
programmers (in this case they can be replaced by computer addicts, for
instance, without any significant change in meaning); NS – question-answer
pair; LA – irr.
J4:
First
English language lesson:
The teacher
- Who can recite the alphabet?
A son of a
computer programmer puts up his hand - Q, W, E, R, T, Y ...
J4: SO – alphabetical
order/the standard arrangement of letters on computer keyboards (Qwerty); LM –
false reference; SI - first English language lesson; the teacher is examining
the pupils; TA – in this case it is not the programmer, but sons of programmers
– they are considered to be strongly influenced by computers and the
interaction with them because they have been brought up in such surroundings.
The answer of the child
implies that he has learned to use a computer and keyboards long before he had
any school education and even before he learned the alphabet. This statement is
an exaggeration in itself and triggers laughter. The NS is similar to that of
the question-answer pair but extended with the introduction – ‘First English
language lesson’ and with the role assignment.
They discuss funny
situations, concerning everyday interaction with computers.
J5:
Q: How many
computer programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None,
that's a hardware problem.
J5 is a question-answer pair
based on the SO hardware problem/software problem. The screwing in of a light
bulb is a technical problem and the light bulb is wrongly attached to the
category of ‘hardware’. Since computer programmers deal only with software
problems, they are not supposed to fix up a hardware problem. LM – reasoning
from false premises; SI – the screwing in of a light bulb, one of the popular
formulae in riddles (question-answer jokes), is used as a frame for the joke;
TA – computer programmers. An implication of this joke is that computer
programmers are inefficient when it comes to repairs in the household, because
they are absorbed in mental work and they do not have any time to (and perhaps
never had the time to learn how to) repair anything. This is an exaggeration,
which triggers laughter. Nevertheless, the joke is based mainly on word play –
the referring of light bulbs to hardware.
J6:
'Imgonnakillthemanwhobrokethespacebar!'
'I_already_got_used_to_it.'
J6 belongs to the category of
meta-humour, because it is based entirely on its graphical representation and
for this reason it is funny only in its written form and is not supposed to
trigger laughter when read aloud. SO – working spacebar/broken spacebar. The
problem caused by the broken spacebar – the stringing together of words,
hinders the perception of the written text and may eventually result in
confusion. The joke is organized as a written dialogue (perhaps the SI is ‘in
chat’) and while the first line introduces the problem, the second line
suggests an ingenious solution which triggers laughter because of its
unexpectedness, but meanwhile is only temporary or not very efficient solution
to the problem, and so on its turn provokes laughter.
J7:
An error
message from an antivirus program:
A virus
found! What shall I do:
- delete
- move
- ignore
- send to a
friend.
Jokes 7, 8 and 9 are in the
form of error messages. In J7 there is a SO – friendly behaviour/unfriendly
action (sending of a virus); LM – transference of a cliché (from one
string of computer commands to another but within the wrong context); SI – text
of an error message; TA – error messages (and eventually users who wouldn’t
notice the mistake because they have got used to its formulation); NS – error
message form; LA – clichés from pop-up windows are combined to form a
possible but contradicting the logic error message. It is presupposed that no
one would like to send a virus to a friend and in the existing string of
options ‘send to a friend’ is the punchline of the joke because of its
irrelevancy.
J8:
An error
message: “Error reading FAT record. Try the skinny one? (Y/N)”
In J8 there are two
homographs – the adjective ‘fat’ and the abbreviation ‘FAT’ which stands for
File Allocation Table. The SO is between a hard disc component script and the
body weight script; LM – referential ambiguity; SI – text of an error message;
TA – error messages (users who don’t know the meaning of computer
abbreviations); NS – error message form; LA – cliché structure – ‘Error
reading…Try …(Y/N)’. The error message is funny but highly improbable, which
reduces to some extent its potential for ridicule.
J9:
J9 is another error message
joke, which is based on referential ambiguity. ‘Any key’ does not specify any
particular key, so that the phrase ‘any other key’ refers to the same
unspecified set of keys as the phrase ‘any key’. Thus the same command stands
for two opposite actions, the execution of which would be logically impossible
or would lead to the random execution of one action. The target of J9 are error
messages; NS – on-liner.
Most of them are derisive in
nature, having as target products which are generally known to have some
defects or their producers.
J10:
Q: How is a
computer like an air conditioner?
A: When you
open Windows it won't work!
In J10 there is word play with
the common noun ‘windows’ and the proper noun ‘Windows’. This joke has a better
effect if read aloud because of the unavoidable usage of a capital letter in
the beginning of the proper known, which assigns more specific reference to the
word, than the reference of its sound equivalent. The SO is computer script/air
conditioner script; LM – analogy; TA – Windows – OS, product of Microsoft; NS –
question-answer pair; LA – comparison. The implication – that Windows is not an
OS of good quality – is achieved through the exaggeration that computers don’t
work under Windows.
J11:
Once upon a
time there was a young man who wanted to become a great writer. "I want to
write things the whole world will read," he declared, "Stuff that will elicit strong
emotions from people in every walk of life. I want my writing to make them
scream, cry, howl in pain and anger."
He now
lives happily ever after writing error messages for MICROSOFT.
J11 has a unique narrative
structure. Beginning with the typical fairy tale formula ‘Once upon a time
there was…’ which is followed by an introduction of the script of ‘the great
writer’ and an enumeration of the qualities of ‘great literature’, most of
which are a provocation of negative feelings (in spite of being one-sided, they
do not contradict the script of ‘the great writer’). The punchline is the
untimely (according to the genre of the fairy tale) ending, which provides the
dénouement of the story. The idea behind the joke is that the error
messages in Microsoft products: 1) appear frequently and all over the world; 2)
affect people in every walk of life; 3) elicit strong negative emotions. SO –
great writer/ writer of error messages; LM – analogy; TA – Microsoft products
(because of the numerous errors, which occur in them and because of the
uselessness of their error messages, which rarely provide users with any
solution); NS – narrative; LA – in this joke two distinctive formulae from the
fairy tale genre are used – ‘Once upon a time’ and ‘He now lives happily ever after’.
Unlike the previous
sub-category of computer jokes, the jokes in the following two categories are
not derisive in nature, but rather their target is language itself or the
selection of words for computer terminology. Some of them are just funny improvisations
on the interpretation of computer terms.
J12:
WWW - World Wide Wait
Joke 12 is an example of
verbal humour caused by deliberate misinterpretation of a well-known
abbreviation, a derogatory in purpose one-liner. The pun is in the definition.
‘WWW” is abbreviated from ‘World Wide Web’ but since some older computers need
more time to load a web page or the connection speed might be low, one very
often has to wait until a web page is visualised. In J12 the target is slow
connection speed. (For other examples of funny definitions – see the appendix.)
J13:
Q: What is
a computer virus?
A: A
terminal illness.
J13 is a question-answer
pair. It is funny because of the SO – computer virus/human illness and also
because of the parallelism between the phrases ‘computer virus’ and terminal
illness’, which is to be found both on the syntactical an on the semantic
level. The LM applied is analogy; SI – dialogue – asking for/giving a
definition; TA – computer terminology (the borrowing of terms from other
branches of science gives rise to possible referential ambiguity or
misinterpretation); NS – question-answer pair; LA – terminology from two
different branches of science.
J14:
Adam and Eve
virus: Takes a couple of bytes out of your Apple.
J 14 is a definition
containing two partially overlapping scripts – the Genesis script and the
computer virus script. The mentioning of Adam and Eve activates the Genesis
script and the unmarked meanings of the homophonous words ‘bytes’ and ‘Apple’
will be respectively ‘an act of biting’ and ‘a round fruit that grows on a
tree’ (Oxford Paperback Dictionary Thesaurus, 2001, Oxford University Press).
Anyway in the written version of the joke the reference is clear – ‘bytes’
designates a unit of measurement of information storage and ‘Apple’ is a brand
name of a kind of computers. LM – analogy; SI – defining the Adam and Eve
virus; TA – in this case – 1) Apple (an American multinational corporation
producing computers) for choosing a common noun for a brand name; 2) language
itself, that allows the same string of sounds to have different meanings; NS –
definition; LA – usage of homophones, which causes ambiguity in meaning. It
should be noticed that the ‘Adam and Eve virus’ is a non-existent entity and it
is possible that it was added to the joke for explicitness in one of its later
versions.
The following jokes are examples of word play with computer terminology:
J15:
Ink jet - a plane used for skywriting.
J16:
Hand
scanner - a bar
prowler, looking for wedding rings.
In J15 and J16 we have pseudo-definitions of words, which stand for computer devices. J15 is based on the polysemy of the word ‘jet’, which can stand for – 1) ‘an aircraft powered by jet engines’; 2) ‘a rapid stream of liquid or gas forced out of a small opening’ (Oxford Paperback Dictionary Thesaurus, 2001, Oxford University Press). Although in the phrase ‘ink jet’ the unmarked meaning of jet is 2), for the purpose of the joke its author has chosen to misinterpret it – to transplant it into another script (the script of aviation) with its meaning in 1). The word ‘ink’ on its turn activates the script ‘writing’, which combined with the script ‘aviation’ activates the script ‘skywriting’, within the limits of which the whole definition is placed.
In J16 the feature [+HUMAN]
is attached to the meaning of the word ‘scanner’. Together with its attribute
‘hand’ the word ‘scanner’ in its new meaning can stand only for ‘a person who
looks quickly at hands in order to find relevant features’ (Oxford Paperback
Dictionary Thesaurus, 2001, Oxford University Press). As these ‘relevant
features’ are not implied by the phrase ‘hand scanner’. It is highly possible
that the joke originated in a situation in which the sexual/marital scripts
were activated and in some way the idea of the action of examining hands for
wedding rings called for the synonym of ‘examining’ – ‘scanning’, which bears
an additional feature [+SPEED], because ‘quickness’ and ‘secrecy’ are closely
related to the action of ‘prowling’. Then the word ‘scanning’ has been combined
with the word ‘hand’ in the closest fixed phrase – ‘hand scanner’, which is a
significant shift in the intended meaning. Thus the SO computer device/sex
appears.
J17:
Treeware –
hacker slang for documentation or other printed material.
In J17 the humorous effect
is achieved by the means of word formation. The word ‘treeware’ is a
non-existent compound word formed by analogy with such words as ‘software’ and
‘hardware’. Then the given definition is an improvisation on the possible
meanings of the newly coined word. Since ‘software’ and ‘hardware’ are examples
of specialised lexis from the sphere of computers, the new word is said to be
‘hacker slang’; the material of the ‘documentation or other printed material’
is paper and since paper is made of wood, the association with the concept of
‘tree’ is unavoidable. The joke most probably originated as the loose second
part of several compound words – ‘ware’ combined with the intrinsic feature of
paper – ‘made of wood’ (or ‘made of trees’).
Structural jokes
Structural jokes are jokes, which are improvisations
on the syntax of computer commands or programming code
J18:
% cat
"food in cans"
cat: can't
open food in cans
The homonymy of the Linux* command ‘cat’ (a command for the
concatenation of one or more files and their printing on standard output) with
the word ‘cat’ designating a small furry animal constitutes the pun in J18. SO
– Linux commands/feeding of a cat; TA – the Linux command ‘cat’; computers; NS
– two-liner; LA – the syntax of computer commands is used; ‘%cat’ is an
existing input command and ‘cat: can’t open’ is standard output produced by the
computer program. The system recognizes ‘food in cans’ as a file name and
includes it in the output string thus resulting in the ambiguous ‘cat: can't
open food in cans’. The joke is a result of the interaction between man (an
intelligent creature) and computer (processing output as a string of words) and
is partially similar to ethnic humour – computers are seen as inferior to us.
‘It is entailed
from this purely semantically
that what is obvious to "us" and therefore to everybody is not
obvious to "them," and the denigrating judgment follows from that
immediately.’ Raskin (1985, ch. 6)
For
more such jokes – see the appendix.
Structural
jokes may also be under the form of source code (see J19 in the appendix), but
what they all have in common is that specialized background knowledge is
necessary for their understanding. Otherwise people would not be able to notice
any script opposition and these jokes would fall flat.
APPENDIX
J0:
Q: Why are there so many
jokes about blondes and only a few jokes about computer programmers?
A: Because everyone but blondes
understands blonde jokes, while it's only programmers, who understand
programmer jokes.
J1:
A programmer had been
missing from work for over a week. As there were heaps of work to do and
clients were getting angry, the boss decided to call him up but nobody answered
the phone. Then his colleagues went to his flat and rang at the door – nobody
answered. They broke the door down, walked into the flat and called him by his
name. Again – there was no answer. Nothing was to be heard but the sound of the
running shower. They went to the bathroom and saw him sitting in the bathtub –
he was obviously dead and his skin was already bluish and wrinkled. They
stopped the water and only with great difficulty managed to wrest the bottle of
shampoo from his clenched fist. They read the instructions: “Lather, rinse,
repeat”.
J1.1:
Q: How to kill a programmer?
A: Give him a shampoo bottle
with the instructions: “Lather, Rinse, Repeat”.
J2:
Q: What do you do when you
see a hot chick?
A: I save the file.
J3:
Q: Why do programmers never
use an elevator to get to the 12th floor?
A: They push the button for
'1', then button for '2' but they never find the enter key.
J4:
First English language
lesson:
The teacher - Who can recite
the alphabet?
A son of a computer
programmer puts up his hand - Q, W, E, R, T, Y ...
J5:
Q: How many computer
programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None, that's a hardware
problem.
J6:
'Imgonnakillthemanwhobrokethespacebar!'
'I_already_got_used_to_it.'
J7:
An error message from an
antivirus program:
A virus found! What shall I
do:
- delete
- move
- ignore
- send to a friend.
J8:
An error message: “Error
reading FAT record. Try the skinny one? (Y/N)”
J9:
An error message: “Press any
key to continue or any other key to exit…”
J10:
Q: How is a computer like an
air conditioner?
A: When you open Windows it
won't work!
J11:
Once upon a time there was a
young man who wanted to become a great writer. "I want to write things the
whole world will read," he declared, "Stuff that will elicit strong emotions from people in
every walk of life. I want my writing to make them scream, cry, howl in pain
and anger."
He now lives happily ever
after writing error messages for MICROSOFT.
J12:
WWW - World Wide Wait
J12.1:
MACINTOSH – Most Applications Crash. If Not, The Operating System Hangs.
J12.2:
IBM - I Blame Microsoft
J12.3:
PENTIUM - Produces Erroneous Numbers Through Incorrect Understanding of
Mathematics
J12.4:
WINDOWS - Will Install Needless Data On Whole System
J13:
Q: What is a computer virus?
A: A terminal illness.
J14:
Adam and Eve virus: Takes a
couple of bytes out of your Apple.
J15:
Ink jet - a plane used for skywriting.
J16:
Hand scanner - a bar prowler, looking for wedding rings.
J17:
Treeware – hacker slang for
documentation or other printed material.
J18:
% cat "food in
cans"
cat: can't open food in cans
J18.1:
% rm God
rm: God nonexistent
(Delete one
or more files. remove a file)
J18.2:
% ar t God
ar: God does not exist]
% ar r God
ar: creating God
(Maintain a
group of files that are combined into a file archive. Used
most commonly to create and update static library files
t - List the contents of archive
or list the named files
r - Replace files in
archive)
J18.3:
% make love
Make: Don't know how to make
love. Stop.
J18.4:
% sleep with me
bad character
J18.5:
% got a light?
No match.
J18.6:
% man: why did you get a
divorce? man::
Too many arguments.
J18.7:
% !:say, what is saccharine?
Bad substitute.
J19:
Win98 source code:
#include "win31.h"
#include "win95.h"
#include
"evenmore.h"
#include
"oldstuff.h"
#include
"billrulz.h"
#define INSTALL = HARD
char
make_prog_look_big[1600000];
void main()
{ while(!CRASHED)
{
display_copyright_message();
display_bill_rules_message();
do_nothing_loop();
if (first_time_installation)
{
make_50_megabyte_swapfile();
do_nothing_loop();
totally_screw_up_HPFS_file_system();
search_and_destroy_the_rest_of_OS/2();
hang_system();
}
write_something(anything);
display_copyright_message();
do_nothing_loop();
do_some_stuff();
if (still_not_crashed)
{
display_copyright_message();
do_nothing_loop();
basically_run_windows_3.1();
do_nothing_loop();
do_nothing_loop();
}
}
if
(detect_cache())disable_cache();
if (fast_cpu())
{ set_wait_states(lots);
set_mouse(speed, very_slow);
set_mouse(action, jumpy);
set_mouse(reaction,
sometimes);
}
/* printf("Welcome to
Windows 3.11"); */
/* printf("Welcome to
Windows 95"); */
printf("Welcome to
Windows 98");
if
(system_ok())crash(to_dos_prompt)
else system_memory =
open("a:\swp0001.swp", O_CREATE);
while(something)
{ sleep(5);
get_user_input();
sleep(5);
act_on_user_input();
sleep(5);
}
create_general_protection_fault();
}
Windows Error Codes!
Windows Error Codes
Unveiled!
WindowError:001 Windows
loaded. System in danger
WindowError:002 No error . .
. yet.
WindowError:003 Dynamic
linking error. Your mistake is now in every file.
WindowError:004 Erronious
error. Nothing wrong.
WindowError:005 Multitasking
attempted. System confused.
WindowError:006 Malicious
error. Desqview found on drive.
WindowError:007 System price
error. Inadequate money spent.
WindowError:008 Broken
window. Watch for glass fragments.
WindowError:009 Horrible bug
encountered. God knows what has happened.
WindowError:00A Promotional
literature overflow. Mailbox full.
WindowError:00B Inadequate
disk space. Need 50 meg minimum.
WindowError:00C Memory hog
error. More RAM needed. More! More!
WindowError:00D Window
closed. Do not look out.
WindowError:00E Window open,
do not look in.
WindowError:00F Unexplained
error. Please tell us how it happened.
WindowError:010 Reserved for
future mistakes
WindowError:014 Nonexistent
error. This cannot really be happening.
WindowError:015 Unable to
exit windows. Try the door.
WindowError:017 Keyboard
locked. Try anything you can think of.
WindowError:018
Unrecoverable error. System destroyed.
WindowError:019 User error.
It's not our fault. Is not! Is not!
WindowError:01A Operating
system overwritten. Terribly sorry.
WindowError:01B Illegal
error. Do not get this error.
WindowError:01C Uncertainty
error. Uncertainty may be inadequate.
WindowError:01D Unable to figure
out our own code. System crashed.
WindowError:01E Timing
error. Please wait. And wait. And wait.
WindowError:01F Reserved for
future mistakes
WindowError:020 Error
recording error codes. Remaining errors lost.
J20:
An inscription on the gravestone
of a programmer reads:
General protection fault -
10.10.61
Runtime error - 23.09.1998
Bibliography:
Raskin,
Victor – (1985) Semantic Mechanisms of Humor (Internet edition)
Oxford
Paperback Dictionary Thesaurus (2001) Oxford University
Press
Internet sources:
http://www.computer-jokes.net/jokes.php
http://www.comedy-zone.net/jokes/computer.htm
http://www.kailashnadh.name
http://www.ahajokes.com/computer_jokes.html
Personal archive
– Hacker magazine #21 - #45 (2004 - 2006), Sofia