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I've always felt this was a singular achievement, one which perfectly captured the spirit of its author, the community he inhabited, and a particular zeitgeist
by thom 6y ago
I've always felt this was a singular achievement, one which perfectly captured the spirit of its author, the community he inhabited, and a particular zeitgeist in programming and on the internet. The need for various other authors to attempt to replicate it for other languages by creating rambling, twee books with wacky titles and comic characters of their own, I've frankly found a bit sad and underwhelming. It's a bit like Boaty McBoatface. It was funny because it broke all the traditional austere rules for naming things, not because Nouny McNounface is somehow innately funny. And yet the joke is replicated endlessly as if each time it's possible for it to be new.
- valbaca 6y agoThis about sums up most Monty Python and Rick & Morty references as well. A lot of nerd/hacker culture falls into this kind of recognition of unique humor and wit, then squeezing every little drop of joy out of it until it's as empty as a Garfield cartoon.
- foolfoolz 6y agothis complaint is effectively “repost!!!”
- Dylan16807 6y ago...you say on a repost. No, the problem isn't "reposting".
- mwcremer 6y agoAu contraire: https://garfieldminusgarfield.net https://garfieldminusgarfield.net (Although I suppose a case could be made for it still being "empty.")
- bdowling 6y agoI prefer `lasagnacat` for my existential/surreal Garfield riffs. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2AQkHXNVA-w9FA1m9VqO7A https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2AQkHXNVA-w9FA1m9VqO7A My favorite may be this one, a one-hour single-take monologue about finding the meaning of life in a Garfield strip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAh9oLs67Cw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAh9oLs67Cw
- devilduck 6y agoYou're allowed to like both things
- joshspankit 6y agoDid not think I would but I did, infact, watch the entire monologue. It made a lasting mark.
- sp332 6y agoAnd https://3eanuts.com/ https://3eanuts.com/ which just removes the last panel from Peanuts strips, making them horribly gloomy.
- AQXt 6y agoThanks for sharing this. TIL Linus has a little brother called Rerun.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- nurettin 6y agoxkcd is the elephant in the room.
- klodolph 6y agoMaking fun of Garfield cartoons might as well be a Monty Python reference.
- jfax 6y agoIt's a tiresome hold-over of Something Awful culture that's been exported everywhere else.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoGarfield has gone beyond joy and is now nightmare fuel: (CW: body horror) https://www.reddit.com/r/imsorryjon/ https://www.reddit.com/r/imsorryjon/
- npsimons 6y ago> A lot of nerd/hacker culture falls into this kind of recognition of unique humor and wit, then squeezing every little drop of joy out of it until it's as empty as a Garfield cartoon. Or maybe they truly enjoy it, and you're also witnessing the lucky 10,000 effect (https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/)? I mean, not to be insulting, but talk about humorless . . .
- DoctorOW 6y agoI think the parent was suggesting that if you enjoy something and want to replicate that feeling in others, one won't be able to do it by simply recreating the surface elements without the context of what made it unique. Garfield is a great example. Garfield's initial popularity stemmed from him being a sharp turn from the cat depicted as the "cute, lovable pet". He was fat, judgmental, and sarcastic. Countless movies, TV shows, commercials, etc. have watered Garfield down to just a face that means nothing. Maybe there are still a lucky 10,000 for Garfield but they're not getting that same experience.
- npsimons 6y agoBut he mentioned "Rick and Morty" and Monty Python. I myself didn't even see a single episode of "Rick and Morty" until last December when I binged them all at my brother's place. Yeah, I had heard of it, was vaguely aware of the memes, but paid it little attention. When I did finally watch it without having previously been bathed in the hubbub surrounding it, I found it at times darkly funny and deeply touching.
- nicebyte 6y agoi don't think it was even funny the first time. reading this stuff i always feel like the author is trying to keep my attention by jiggling some car keys in front of my face as if i am an infant. this applies to books like learn you a haskell too.
- ertian 6y agoEh, humor is subjective. If a person was anxious to learn Ruby ASAP and found this guide, it would've been frustratingly sparse and meandering. And the humor is too laid-back to be laugh-out-loud funny. But I think you just weren't the target audience. I found it on a dull day at school, and just kept reading the way you might a web comic. I wasn't rolling on the floor, but I cracked a smile pretty often. And I picked up ruby (and some new-to-me concepts like lambdas, closures, etc) almost by accident.
- DoctorOW 6y agoFully agree. There are lots of "normal" programming guides for a language as popular as Ruby. This is really good at appealing to the type of person who would really like Ruby.
- booleandilemma 6y agoBefore stumbling upon Why’s Guide my only experience with programming literature had been dry textbooks. The whimsy was a welcome relief. Someone with your taste would be better off reading The Art of Computer Programming though.
- djur 6y agoTAOCP isn't exactly a laugh riot but Knuth is kind of known for his sense of humor.
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- cutler 6y agoDon't forget Ruby. Only Ruby (and Clojure) can liberate the mind enough to facilitate such flights of fancy :)
- leetrout 6y agoIt really is a pretentiousness held in a group of language zealots. You don’t hear the same about Nim, for example(yet?), In my experience. I don’t deny Ruby’s impact on the industry I just have a hard time with the attitudes prevalent in the devs I’ve worked with... it is strikingly stereotypical.
- cambalache 6y agoComplains about the "pretentiousness" of Ruby developers (Out all the languages!). Proceeds to mention Nim. Rub his mustache, drink his kombucha a put another vinyl.
- hobby-coder-guy 6y agoThis comment made me laugh. Thank you. Also, Rust is better than Nim, Kefir is more cool, moustaches aren’t as great as man-buns, and reel-to-reel is the only way to listen to music.
- thom 6y agoThis is a real shame, I think, because the same things that made Ruby and its community such a revelation in the early years of this century (as a sort of revolt against enterprise development and especially the Java ecosystem), make me quite like Nim in a world with the complexity of C++ and the restraints of Rust. To be clear I happen to like all these languages but I also value their many contrasting personalities.
- dialamac 6y agoI don’t see your point. A large base of Nim users are looking for a pragmatic alternative to the C/C++ family without the aggressive anti-modernism of Go. Nim is certainly not the only player in this realm, but far as I know there isn’t a “Nim Drama” Twitter or tumblr. The drama queen stereotype of Ruby and Rails is very well earned on a repeated basis. All the communities have had their dramas but Ruby and Rust to a lesser extent seem to attract it a lot more as a pattern.
- lloeki 6y ago> I've always felt this was a singular achievement, one which perfectly captured the spirit of its author, the community he inhabited, and a particular zeitgeist in programming and on the internet There’s been a talk earlier this year based on that, by Sunny Ripert: “A poignant look back at "why the lucky stiff's" legacy” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=njr39cVU7d0&list=PLjyiiigeVQV-rqM4LD2SUbUfxXLuta1yU&index=4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=njr39cVU7d0&list=PLjyiiigeVQV-...
- thom 6y agoThanks for posting this! I’m aware my curmudgeonly tone set the stage for further grumpy comments but I want to reiterate that I do actually find _why’s guide delightful, I just don’t think other attempts (which it would probably be mean to name) work outside the narrow circumstances of the original.
- lquist 6y agoAgreed. Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby is nothing short of literature.
- MichaelMoser123 6y agothere is a documentary about _why, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64anPPVUw5U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64anPPVUw5U
- brazzy 6y ago> And yet the joke is replicated endlessly as if each time it's possible for it to be new. Quite the opposite. It's replicated because it's now become a trope. "Repetition is the essential comedic device": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedic_device#Repetition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedic_device#Repetition
- thom 6y agoThe essence of comedy is confounded expectations, and it’s true repetition can set this up, and in some cases itself be the joke, especially in standup where a comedian will stretch out a bit beyond people’s comfort zone. But it would be difficult to achieve that with Nouny McNounface at this point. Just making a callback isn’t funny. It’s only funny if it takes time to actually dawn on an audience that that’s what’s happening.
- Veen 6y agoWhen you've heard your kid tell the same "knock knock" joke 50 times, you'll realize that repetition alone isn't enough. Repetition is an important part of humour and communication in general, but context, surprise, originality, irony, and wit matter too.