130 ‘Shockingly’ Good Programmer Jokes And Memes From This Online Group (New Pics)

by admin March 10, 2022

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

#1 Steal What Is Stolen

Image credits: LongLiveGOSR

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

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#3 Why But Why?

Image credits: ore-aba

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."

#4 Computer Screams..

Image credits: Expert-Box5610

#5 It Hurts

Image credits: A_Rainbow_Astronaut

#6 Based On Personal Experience

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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."

#7 Wait, What Is Happening Here?

Image credits: _megas

#8 Some Years Later…

Image credits: Fun-Context4181

#9 Are You Good With Computers?

Image credits: ultra_mind

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.

#10 Whatever, Dude

Image credits: XinoVan

#11 What?

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#12 We Know

Image credits: MaxBuddyRoo

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.

#13 Pain

Image credits: reddit.com

#14 Thoughts??

Image credits: Responsible_Hall_324

#15 Has This Ever Happened To You?

Image credits: _Xyreo_

"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 „i Don‘T Know Why It Is Not Working“

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#17 Namespacing...

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#18 Well Well

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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 Project Manager's Scream In Disguise

Image credits: SuspiciousTrash0

#20 It's Too Painful

Image credits: WarrenElise

#21 Who Else ..?

Image credits: Expert-Box5610

"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

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

Image credits: mikey10006

#23 You Don't Have Any Clue

Image credits: yuva-krishna-memes

#24 Happened To You Too?

Image credits: SpyrosDev25

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."