The worldwide collaborative effort for the creation of software is technically and socially demanding. The more engaged developers are, the more value they impart to the software they create. Engaged developers, such as Margaret Hamilton programming Apollo 11, can succeed in tackling the most difficult engineering tasks. In this paper, we dive deep into an original vector of engagement - humor - and study how it fuels developer engagement. First, we collect qualitative and quantitative data about the humorous elements present within three significant, real-world software projects: faker, which helps developers introduce humor within their tests; lolcommits, which captures a photograph after each contribution made by a developer; and volkswagen, an exercise in satire, which accidentally led to the invention of an impactful software tool. Second, through a developer survey, we receive unique insights from 125 developers, who share their real-life experiences with humor in software. Our analysis of the three case studies highlights the prevalence of humor in software, and unveils the worldwide community of developers who are enthusiastic about both software and humor. We also learn about the caveats of humor in software through the valuable insights shared by our survey respondents. We report clear evidence that, when practiced responsibly, humor increases developer engagement and supports them in addressing hard engineering and cognitive tasks. The most actionable highlight of our work is that software tests and documentation are the best locations in code to practice humor.

翻译：全球協作開發軟體的工作在技術和社交層面均充滿挑戰。開發者參與度越高，其為所創建軟體帶來的價值就越大。像瑪格麗特·漢密爾頓（Margaret Hamilton）為阿波羅11號編程那樣，全心投入的開發者能夠成功攻克最困難的工程任務。本文深入探討了一個獨特的參與驅動因素——幽默，並研究其如何促進開發者參與。首先，我們收集了三個真實世界軟體項目中幽默元素的定性和定量數據：faker（幫助開發者在測試中引入幽默）、lolcommits（在開發者每次貢獻後自動拍照）以及volkswagen（一個諷刺性練習，卻意外催生了一款極具影響力的軟體工具）。其次，通過對125名開發者進行問卷調查，我們獲得了他們在軟體開發中與幽默相關的獨特真實經驗。對這三個案例的分析突顯了幽默在軟體中的普遍性，並揭示了全球同時熱愛軟體與幽默的開發者社群。此外，通過受訪者分享的寶貴見解，我們也了解到軟體中幽默的注意事項。我們提供明確證據表明：負責任地運用幽默時，它能提升開發者參與度，並幫助開發者應對艱難的工程與認知任務。本研究的實用亮點在於：軟體測試與文檔是代碼中最適合運用幽默的場景。