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Comment by ZoFreX | Hacker News Reader

I find it pompous because

1. there is opportunity for genuine discussion here (why can't I write my programs in my native tongue? is it an insurmountable problem to let me type 'colour' and for you to see 'color'?) but that opportunity is never taken up

2. It's wrong. If you're going to make a joke at least get it right - this isn't British English, this is "I looked up some random stuff online" English

3. It's not funny. It can be if done well but this post, like many others, takes a "throw everything I found at the wall and see what sticks" approach. Some of them are great - the switch/case statement is a genuine improvement, in my eyes. Some of them are just pompous wankery, as you so elegantly put it.

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Just because you don't find it funny does not mean it is not. English is my second language and I had to learn about many intricacies of both American and British English. I personally find this article absolutely hilarious, but it might be because I understand a concept that is quite foreign to Americans - sarcasm. I can clearly see that this article is meant to be a mockery of old, stereotypically British way of speaking, which contrasted with clean and technical American English is amusing - in a sarcastic way. If you can't see it for what it is, but instead see it as being or trying to be pompous,then yes, it is quite hard to see the humour.

Maybe it's hard to hear the humour when the joke's played out - I confess I have heard variants of it a little too frequently.

> I can clearly see that this article is meant to be a mockery of old, stereotypically British way of speaking

I am insisting that it should be a mockery of old, stereotypically British way of speaking - as it stands, it isn't, it's a mockery of what the author and several other people (yourself included) consider to be a stereotypically British way of speaking. I guess what I'm saying is, if you're gonna take the piss out of me, please do me the honour of doing it well.

> this isn't British English, this is "I looked up some random stuff online" English

The author is a Brit. I know, for I am he. You're welcome to dislike it, of course. My humour isn't the same as everyone else's. But "pompous" is a bit much. Except for the bits where I was aiming for pompous.

I'd like to see an Estuary English/Londoner/Cockney version. "Alert" could become "Oy_Wanker", "Try..Catch" could be "Do it!" and "Bollocks" etc etc.

"British English" is a very political issue. It's not all RP/Standard Southern or Cockney.

insert jokes about forking England's repo and the chaos that ensues

I don't see how any of the points you raised are related to it being pompous or not.

Funny is personal. I found it very funny. And in what way is it wrong? Because British people don't actually speak like that? That's part of the joke. Someone could make an American version with alert("howdy pardner") and I don't think anyone would take it seriously.

I agree about switch/case/break, in all semi-seriousness. what_about/perhaps/splendid is actually more readable.

Yeah, for some reason I seem to stumble over switch/case statements no matter which language I'm in. What_about / perhaps actually makes more sense to me.

I think what the world really needs right now is a dapper programming language.

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