Spooning by bitbucket
bitbucket.orgAs someone who pairs 90% of my working time, I can't help but smile at the Bitbucket Flickr gallery:
Narrator guy is great at being terrible actor.
April Fools Day is becoming a 3 day holiday this year.
From early morning UTC+23 to late night UTC-23, I suppose.
Simple! Fork, Spoon, Knife! how did they keep a straight face?
I wonder if they have a chopsticks version. Actually, never mind: that's pair piano-playing.
And what do you mean by that?
It's a two-part joke:
1) The video talks about forking code, pair-programming with spooning, and knifing (pull requests): fork, spoon, and knife. I just wondered if they have a chopsticks version, for people who prefer using chopsticks.
2) Then I realized there is already a context that involves pairing and chopsticks: Chopsticks is a common piano duet. Of course, it doesn't have to be played by two people...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q_0N79afqU
(The video begins with the version you typically hear kids playing, but then, well, you have to watch!)
This was pretty painful to watch as a gay technologist.
I don't quite get how you could see this as anything other than a harmless april's fool prank. This is not homophobia, it's just comedy. Lighten up[1].
[1]: Yes, I read that article on sexism the other week… call me insensitive, but I think lighten up is a perfectly valid answer in this case.
> This is not homophobia, it's just comedy.
Stop it! You guys are killing me!
Why?
Homophobia doesn't just mean "bigotry against gay people", it refers more literally to a literal fear of being in a homosexual situation[1]. This fear, or discomfort if you put it more charitably, underpins a lot of attempts at humor, including the OP.
As a bisexual spooning enthusiast and also a developer, I personally don't mind; I think it's totally valid, and potentially pretty funny, to feel apprehensive about that kind of thing. I understand that feeling because that's how I feel about paired programming much of the time ;)
[1] The connection to bigotry comes from the notion that bigotry against gays is motivated by the psychological fear that gays will try to have sex with you; hence someone who seeks to oppress gay people is motivated by homophobia in the more literal sense. No comment on the validity of that notion.
Upvoted this thread, because I think this is an important discussion. However, I think your analysis focuses on the wrong point. Interestingly, you and seanmcq engage in stereotyping by making this situation of male-male intimacy about homosexuality.
To me, the joke here isn't that spooning with a male would be uncomfortable. The joke is that you are spooning with a colleague, in the office. It's a transgression of the relationship you have with colleagues and a transgression of the normal activities that happen in an office environment. That's what makes it uncomfortable and thus funny. That the colleague is usually male is besides the point: it is even funny to gays that feel uncomfortable when thinking about spooning with a colleague in the office.
So you are completely right that a feeling of discomfort underpins this humor. I just disagree with the source of the discomfort.
> Interestingly, you and seanmcq engage in stereotyping by making this situation of male-male intimacy about homosexuality.
It's not a stereotype; the whole point of literal homophobia is that male-male intimacy does border uncomfortably on the homosexual.
In any case, your interpretation of the joke is probably more on target; I was just explaining how it could be seen as homophobic.
As a one-armed programmer, I think I'm srsly offended by this.
It would be nice to have these labelled as April 1st posts.
Andy Baio used to catalog embarrassingly lame April 1st pranks in a post titled "Internet Jackass Day". I've always been a bit disappointed the name didn't catch on.
Anyone else noticed the "distribited" typo?
"bitbucket". It's intentional.
Dingle, Barry
They don't even press the keyboard. :/
I really did not enjoy that.
This is seriously creepy
I'd say it's less "creepy" than "awkward." Which is exactly why it's humorous.
ROFL !
Eww.