placeholders and humour

General Off-Topic Discussion
1

I’m often rather creative in writing placeholder, sometimes in an humorous manner, the most recent example being this (and yes, is a byproduct of excellent constructive criticism…):

afterAction {
if (redGirl.examined && greenGirl.examined && aquaGirl.examined && 
braceletp.examined) // the essentials; pointing that the rest is optional.
 "<<first time>>After looking broadly at the depicted girls and their 
bracelets, the Chainsaw of Sins against Mimesis points in a rather 
non-digetic manner that you have just seen enough and all the 40+ remaining 
details is eminently optional"; //patently provisional ;)
}

In this case, I have poked fun on an ancient r.a.i.f. debate… :smiley:

So, why not a very lighthearted discussion (and sharing…) about humour in writing placeholder code/text ?

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

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The danger of funny placeholders is that, accidentally or on purpose, they make it into the final work!

The following line was supposed to be a placeholder that I got entirely too carried away with and now is the opening of one of the nights of Lady Thalia 2:

“You are Lady Thalia, and it is time to commit a crime. Well, a crime sanctioned by the police. Well, sanctioned by one policewoman who doesn’t have jurisdiction in this country. Not that any of that makes this any more or less illegal than what you typically get up to, anyway, but it is a change of pace.”

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It’s hard to follow such enjoyable answers, but in the interest of keeping the thread going:

I always use “zork” so that I can find it in a search.

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I’m late to the party, but this thread made me think of one of the tables in my code. Instead of leaving blank rows, I wrote a list of texts written by Leon Trotsky, mixed in with less serious titles I invented. The table is cleared as soon as the game starts…

Table of available options
OPTION
“Our political tasks”
“Results and Prospects”
“The History of the Russian Revolution to Brest-Litovsk”
“The Art of Negotiating with Angry Germans”
“Between Imperialism and Revolution”
“Problems of Everyday Life”
“Literature and Revolution”
“Europe and America”
“The Third International After Lenin”
“A Selection of Insults Used by Vladimir Lenin”
“The Permanent Revolution”
“History of the Russian Revolution”
“How to Defeat Fascism”
“Where is England Heading?”
“My Life”
“The Revolution Disfigured”
“The Youth of Lenin”
“The Revolution Betrayed”
“The Transitional Program”
“How to Look After a Goatee”
“Their Morals and Ours”
“Stalin”
“Top 10 Other Villains”
“Diary of Exile”
“How to Make a Mexican Cocktail”
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I always include XYZZY, similarly so that I can find it with a search.

Placeholder names can be fun. I collect ideas for them. Like Albert Ross (doesn’t come with wafers), Emma Nation, and Jack Colby. Spoonerisms can be fun too.

One thing I’ve learned, though, is to resist the temptation to use rude placeholders, particularly at work — even if it’s a real name of an actual person. One time a colleague had to go through scrubbing all the smut out of a test database so it could be used for a demo.

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the rudeness is often in the eye of the beholders (and authors): for example, I have given some test of variant text the label prude_appeasement, because, in my lexicon “prude” IS a rude term…

fun fact: Italian has no word for “unlock”, but in the past, the word for unlock existed (and used by no less than Dante[1]…) but today has a very different meaning…

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

  1. e io senti’ chiavar l’uscio di sotto
    a l’orribile torre; ond’io guardai
    nel viso a’ mie’ figliuoi sanza far motto. ↩︎