I'm surprised by the authors surprise at Perl programmers being the "happiest". It's a fun language that enables a lot of cool stuff with a very low barrier to entry. No reason folks shouldn't be happy. It's also a language with a very long history of playfulness being baked right in...Perl golf, obfuscated Perl, Perl poetry, etc. Larry's State of the Onion addresses are historically as funny as they are informative.