n. A distinctive style of shared intellectual humor
found among hackers, having the following distinctive
characteristics:
1. Fascination with form-vs.-content jokes, paradoxes, and humor
having to do with confusion of metalevels (see meta). One way
to make a hacker laugh: hold a red index card in front of him/her
with "GREEN" written on it, or vice-versa (note, however, that
this is funny only the first time).
2. Elaborate deadpan parodies of large intellectual constructs, such
as specifications (see write-only memory), standards documents,
language descriptions (see INTERCAL), and even entire scientific
theories (see quantum bogodynamics, computron).
3. Jokes that involve screwily precise reasoning from bizarre,
ludicrous, or just grossly counter-intuitive premises.
4. Fascination with puns and wordplay.
5. A fondness for apparently mindless humor with subversive
currents of intelligence in it -- for example, old Warner Brothers
and Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, the Marx brothers, the early
B-52s, and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Humor that combines this
trait with elements of high camp and slapstick is especially
favored.
6. References to the symbol-object antinomies and associated ideas
in Zen Buddhism and (less often) Taoism.
See has the X nature,
Discordianism, zen, ha ha only serious, AI koans.
See also filk, retrocomputing, and appendix B. If you have an
itchy feeling that all 6 of these traits are really aspects of
one thing that is incredibly difficult to talk about exactly, you
are (a) correct and (b) responding like a hacker. These traits are
also recognizable (though in a less marked form) throughout
science-fiction-fandom.