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Many of us spend hours each day in front of the computer or our phone screens—whether for work or for pleasure. However, far from everyone knows just how computers and the programs they run work. For all intents and purposes, for the majority of us, computers are akin to magic: we don’t care how they work as long as we get our daily dose of cat pics.

However, the programmers, coders, computer scientists, and digital geeks of this world surf circles around us on the internet and know the nitty-gritty of how our tech really functions. And in their world, humor takes on a specific tone: you’ve got to know a bit about programming to really get the jokes that are multilayered like onions.

The r/ProgrammerHumor subreddit is chock full of awesome programming memes and jokes that you’re bound to enjoy if you fancy yourselves fans of coding and all things tech, dear Pandas. Upvote your fave pics as you scroll down.

Bored Panda reached out to software engineer, musician, and artist Andrew Eckel for some insights into programming. Read on for his thoughts, dear Pandas.

You’ll find some more awesome coding memes in Bored Panda’s earlier articles about r/ProgrammerHumor right over here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

More info: Reddit | Twitter

Bored Panda wanted to get software engineer Andrew's opinion on whether or not it's important what programming language people start with. He shared that if you're pressed to learn a new language, for example for university, you might get the motivation to go above and beyond.

"My undergrad program was taught in C++, but where I went to grad school, they used Java. To catch up, I wound up taking graduate-level classes and the freshman intro class in the same semester. My fellow students in the freshman class wondered how I suddenly became their TA in the following semester," Andrew shared a snippet from his own life.

#2

Guess Flexibility Wasn't A Requirement

Guess Flexibility Wasn't A Requirement

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Andrew fully believes that programming allows for a lot of creativity and expression. In his view, saying that programming isn't creative is "like saying using a sewing machine isn't creative. It's creative if you make something creative with it! It's a craft that can be done both artfully and in the service of creating great art. Or you can program a garage door opener with it."

He quipped: "If people say it isn't creative, you won't hear them over the sound of your garage door closing."

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#5

Computer Screams..

Computer Screams..

Expert-Box5610 , twitter.com Report

#6

Why But Why?

Why But Why?

ore-aba , twitter.com Report

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Nevid
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The computer doesn't know that you are missing a semicolon. It sees what looks like two instructions in a row and assume you meant for them to be two separate instructions. But it could be something else, and the computer tells you about the problem so you make it clear what you want, instead of fixing it without telling you and ending up with a code that doesn't do what you want.

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Software engineer Andrew also opened up to us about his latest creative projects. "I've been working on a song called 'Fire Escape,' with a couple of my Boston friends singing backup, recorded remotely, and a synth bass part with a lot of pitch shifts in it. Inspired by the synth bass of Britney Spears's 'Toxic,' I hooked up a MIDI joystick to control pitch in the left-right direction and vibrato in the up-down direction, emulating the way the joystick on some '80s synths worked. The song as a whole is nothing like 'Toxic,' a whole different sound, but for the bass part I wanted that vibe!" he told Bored Panda.

Meanwhile, he's preparing to release his LeastAverageImage project's code open-source next week, "along with some results of running the program with a classic Simpsons episode as input." He also "did a little photoshoot with a favorite toy from my childhood last weekend, for a silly joke making fun of NFTs."

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#7

Wait, What Is Happening Here?

Wait, What Is Happening Here?

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#8

We Know

We Know

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DUN DUN (she/her)
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And the worst thing is, the codes you proudly thought were short and compact and workable, could be even shorter and more compact.

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#9

Steal What Is Stolen

Steal What Is Stolen

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The r/ProgrammerHumor subreddit has nearly a whopping 1.8 million members, as well as an additional 54k followers on Twitter. Created way back in 2012, it celebrated its 10th anniversary at the end of January this year.

Whether you’re a veteran programmer or are completely new with a freshly-baked diploma, if you plan on sharing memes on the sub, you should always aim for relevant jokes. All the humor has to be programming-related, so jokes that are generic and cover other professions are best kept for other online communities.

Software engineer, musician, and artist Andrew previously gave Bored Panda some great insights into the work, life, and world of programming.

#11

Whatever, Dude

Whatever, Dude

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Hans
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Alan Turing would likely have contributed much more to humanity if humanity didn't decide to treat him insanely inhumanly.

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#12

Has This Ever Happened To You?

Has This Ever Happened To You?

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Karen Grace
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Step 1) palm to the face. Step 2) shake head. Step 3) repeat steps 1 & 2.

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He explained that debugging can actually be fun and said that programming as a whole is very rewarding when you finally manage to figure out the puzzle. For him, programming is definitely all worth it.

According to software engineer Andrew, the core of any programmer or computer scientist’s joy lies in creating new and exciting things and then watching them work as they had intended.

#14

Project Manager's Scream In Disguise

Project Manager's Scream In Disguise

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"The best moment for any programmer is seeing something you built work for the first time. It seems almost too good to be true, when something goes from an idea to a bunch of lines of code, to something that actually works and is helpful," he said what keeps him passionate.

"You don't even need to invent anything to experience this thrill. Often it's just a matter of taking a well-known algorithm and applying it to a new situation,” Andrew said that someone can experience joy without programming something entirely unique and never-before-seen.

#16

What?

What?

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Quaumsy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Replace programming with nothing and you get me

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“There are many great teachers out there who can teach about algorithms and the thought process of how to apply them—people who can take something that has the potential to be really dry and make it fun and interesting," he said.

Andrew shared one recent moment of programming joy. It happened when his software-based art project finally started working as intended. "I certainly had that kind of moment when my image processing program LeastAverageImage spat out the 'airplanes' image and it was exactly what I had been hoping for," he said.

#19

Thoughts??

Thoughts??

Responsible_Hall_324 , twitter.com Report

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Gandalf the Pink
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Of course they are not low skill. It's just that fast food chains make a profit out of not having expensive senior staff. They give difficult stressful jobs to young people and expect them to burn out and fail so they can hire new ones without having to raise salaries.

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#21

Riding The Good Life

Riding The Good Life

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mulk
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same when you learn a new programming language: "I understand everything" / "I know nothing" / "I understand everything" / "I know nothing" / ...

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"But I had a similar feeling when a program I intended to reduce photos to only the colors available on a Lite Brite completely failed but made a 'running paint' effect much cooler than anything I was intending to make," he told Bored Panda. "That program isn't called LiteBriteColors now; it's called The ErrorSpreader," he added

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#22

They Need To Stop Doing This

They Need To Stop Doing This

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Susie Elle
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can relate this to my supervisor coming up with +/- 4 years of work for one student who's only got 4 months time and me, the lab tech, has to teach the student how to work a pipette.

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However, like in most professions, big breakthroughs and moments of adrenaline don’t happen all the time. Usually, things are more mundane, the happiness that you get from your work is calmer, simpler.

"Those 'eureka' moments don't happen every day, but the day-to-day fun in programming is debugging. I know that sounds crazy because if you're debugging it usually means the code you wrote doesn't work! But everyone I work with feels this way. The more confusing and strange the program's behavior is, the more fun it is to unravel the mystery, find the cause, and fix it. It's like a puzzle."

#26

Who Else ..?

Who Else ..?

Expert-Box5610 , twitter.com Report

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Adam Zad
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was in the hospital and this woman came in, introduced herself, and said she was going to be my Certified NetWare Associate.

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#27

Javascript Has And Will Always Have A Very Special Place In My

Javascript Has And Will Always Have A Very Special Place In My

serverlessmom , twitter.com Report

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Dhairya Gupta
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Javascript be like I am slowly going to kill you and you won't even fell a thing .....

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Andrew shared with us a witty conversation between a teacher and a student that he heard back during a grad class that he took.

"Teacher: Since we don't care about the language specifics, I'm going to write the example in pseudo-code.

Student: Pseudo-code...isn't that the puzzle with numbers on a grid?

Teacher: No, that's Sudoku."

#29

Working With Old School Programmers Can Be A Pain Sometimes

Working With Old School Programmers Can Be A Pain Sometimes

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Flops
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

and you know that there is documentation, and it's either left with the last of a series of programmers (for understandable reasons), OR some admin has deleted "unnecessary" files....

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#32

It Works!

It Works!

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Porpoisepower
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm so glad he's wearing a high visablity vest. Very important when 10K feet in the air. (yeah I know it's a photoshop).

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#34

"C++ Makes It Harder To Shoot Yourself, But When You Do It Blows Your Whole Leg Off"

"C++ Makes It Harder To Shoot Yourself, But When You Do It Blows Your Whole Leg Off"

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Hans
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, C (and, therefore C++) is really just a bit of abstraction from assembly language, and hardly enforces anything. Languages like Python restrict the programmer much more – for the good and for the bad. Chose the right language for the job, not the one you know best...

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#35

Why Are You Like This?

Why Are You Like This?

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Paul Davis
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you don't have Jell-O for brains, you have more than one backup in more than one location. Where I work we have a saying -- if you don't have good backups, it must not have been that important to you.

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Note: this post originally had 130 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.