this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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Programmer Humor

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~~For all I care this is the funniest joke I've ever told~~

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[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)
[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

#define NINETY (4 * 20 + 10)

[–] mormegil@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Danish: // hold my beer

#define NINETY ((int) (4.5 * 20))

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

lemme make an addendum to the Zen of Python

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] adb@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 day ago

The best jokes are still in the comments though

Regarding the other errors, it seems your compiler is simply on strike. This can happen occasionally when compiling french code, and should fix itself in a few days.

[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I tried so hard to understand as a french and still had to look for the answer. OP's mistake is that it is pronounced fozo, not foo. The x is only silent when at the end of a word

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 8 points 2 days ago

Yeah, they’d be better off with fous.

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

eaux is pronounced o in the world oiseaux, which means birds. foo is a common stand-in name in programming, along with bar. foo has two o's, which are both replaced with the french spelling.

[–] northernlights@lemmy.today 1 points 10 hours ago

Except that no, it's not how it's pronounced.

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz -1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It doesn’t work (as explained in another comment)

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

of course it doesn't! if my user tags are not lying, you are probably using a hungarian operating system, so you should be using this:

megh fó(n):
    visszatér n+1

megh vendéglő(n):
    visszatér n-1
[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

if my user tags are not lying, you are probably using a hungarian operating system

Ohhh, you can see that ? Which clients implement that feature ? You learn something new about lemmy everyday xD

Btw “using a hungarian operating system” is false

And

megh fó(n):
    visszatér n+1

megh vendéglő(n):
    visszatér n-1

Isn’t correct either

It should be

függ fú(n):
    visszaküld n+1

függ bár(n):
    visszaküld n-1

LLM translations aren’t very good when it comes to languages spoken by such a few people x)

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago

Ohhh, you can see that ? Which clients implement that feature ? You learn something new about lemmy everyday xD

It's Voyager, but these are not public tags, I just tagged you earlier :)

Isn’t correct either

well it depends. the code in OP was mimicking python, where you begin functions with the shorthand for "definition", not "function"

LLM translations aren’t very good when it comes to languages spoken by such a few people x)

bojler eladó! de ha nem kell, most megfizetsz megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseidért!

[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

beauxeauxeaux

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Language jokes by people who evidently know bugger all about the language are extremely cringe

[–] Ragdoll_X@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] FishFace@piefed.social 6 points 2 days ago

to write the General American pronunciation of "mom" with French orthography would be something like "mam".

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Please explain. It's the first dad joke of programming I've ever seen.

[–] Ragdoll_X@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

The French pronounce the letters "eaux" as just "o", and foo and bar are placeholder names for functions that are often used in programming tutorials.

[–] RustyNova@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Yes, but it's "oh", not "oo" (as in football)

So it's read "foh-oh". If you want to be correct, it's "Fou - barre - base" ("foo - bar - baz")

[–] Ragdoll_X@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Well feauxck

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

C'est un crazy rod là

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I'm French and most people know that oo is not "o." Fou would have been the proper way to write it.

[–] sik0fewl@piefed.ca 3 points 2 days ago

I’m not French, but I read it as “foh-zoh”.

[–] moody@lemmings.world 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

But how do you pronounce zoo?

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 10 points 2 days ago

"Omlette du frommage."

[–] TheYojimbo@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago
[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

The “oo” in “foo” is written “ou” in French

Thus foo -> fou

“Feauxeaux” would be pronounced “fozo” (‘o’ as in “cold”)

[–] MajinBlayze@lemmy.world -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Eaux in French is pronounced like oh

So foo -> feauxeaux

[–] HuntressHimbo@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

French Furries: eauxWeaux :3

[–] Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago

French people saying "water":

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

[Obligatory comment about frog fursuits goes here]

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Not really. Every programmer in France knows how to speak English, and foo is foo, not anything else.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 5 points 2 days ago

Every programmer in France knows how to speak English

Impressive.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 5 points 2 days ago

wheauxeauxsh

[–] MajinBlayze@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I bet you're fun at parties

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The venerable Jargon File has the French metasyntactic variables (i.e. the equivalents to foo and bar) as toto, titi, tata and tutu.

Or to take this in another direction: foo sounds like French "fou" which means "mad" (as in "insane"), so "coucou" might be an interesting alternative.

[–] Venator@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Or maybe something like "Foutu en l'air" and "Au-delà de tout irréparable"?

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Kansas doggie, titties, indian car, pink skirt are strange metasyntactic variables.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago

I figure they're more likely related, in spirit and vocalisation if not etymologically, to the French phrase «et patati, et patata», translatable as "blah blah blah" or "yada yada yada".

[–] Tja@programming.dev 4 points 2 days ago

Mon octets!

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago

I once made faux and vrai constants in Java and used them everywhere for a laugh.

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

Don't reinvent the wheel, learn the Baguette on Snails framework!