The joke I'm imagining is based on a mental association I have with the acronym "GNU", which is used by The GNU Project: https://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.

The joke I'm imagining is based on a mental association I have with the acronym "GNU", which is used by The GNU Project: https://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.en.html https://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.en.html The group behind that project support the idea that people who use software should have access to the source code of that software, and therefore requesting the "source" is an action they would encourage. They are also responsible for individual pieces of software with names like "GNU Emacs": https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ Hopefully this information proves interesting and useful to someone, and I haven't merely made a silly joke less funny by explaining it.