Computer Science Joke

While working with a few of my friends on a project for our software development class we were trying to figure out why we kept receiving a compilation error. We painstakingly went through every line of code until we finally found that we were just missing a semicolon. My friend turned to me and said “You know the semicolon has been the hide and seek champion since 1958.” The rest of us in the group laughed because this is such a common problem. Some code editors alert users to specific issues while others just give a general compiler error. I asked my friend where she learned the joke. She said that she heard it from one of our TA’s when he was debugging another student’s code. Other than that she is not sure of the origin. I believe that the joke probably developed soon after coding languages since this is a very common problem. My friend is a computer science and business administration major with a cybersecurity minor. As part of the computer science community he collects and forwards a myriad of folklore specific to this unique group. Computer science folklore is unique and reflects the beliefs and the culture of the group. Per my informant, as well as personal experience, computer science majors have a unique sense of humor that develops from the difficult coursework, the long hours spent on the computer coding, and the group dynamic required to get through the major. This humor is often expressed through memes and jokes only members of this group can understand and appreciate.