Aaron's Puns, Ranked.
One of the recurring segments of my Internet Radio Show, the Breaking Change podcast, involves Aaron "@tenderlove" Patterson writing us a pun, delivering it to me in invisible ink, and me reading it for the first time into the microphone so listeners can hear my live, genuine reaction. Sometimes his puns evoke a sensible chuckle and sometimes they make me question whether I should keep doing this segment.
Finally, once I've let the pun wash over me, I rank it!
Here's the scoreboard of Aaron's puns so far, ranked from best to blurst.
Breaking Change, Season 2
| Rank | Ep. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | v29 | I bought a Nintendo switch because I heard is was going to be really fun to play. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it one bit and now I feel like I’ve been joy conned |
| 2 | v28 | I was really hoping to play Balatro today, but I don't have time so I guess it's not in the cards |
Breaking Change, Season 1
In v28, Aaron & I held the 1st Annual Punsort, where we re-ranked all of 2024's puns collaboratively, and we kept at it until we reached consensus. Here's where the first season of puns landed, including both their initial rank (pre-punsort) and their final rank (post-punsort):
| Final Rank | Initial Rank | Ep. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | v6 | I'm really glad Americans are finally embracing tap to pay. It was real touch and go there for a while |
| 2 | 4 | v10 | Writing an emulator seems like a lot of work if you just want to game the system |
| 3 | 23 | v25 | I hear many outlets in Japan aren't grounded. If you're not careful you could get a culture shock! |
| 4 | 5 | v8 | I loved playing triple A games as a kid, but replacing the batteries got real expensive |
| 5 | 12 | v5 | Aren't progressive web apps just "liberal media"? |
| 6 | 10 | v9 | Did you know that "en garde!" is French? I learned that while studying on Duel Lingo |
| 7 | 1 | v22 | Did you know the ancient Aztec were really in to Halloween? Apparently they were famous for their corn maize |
| 8 | 17 | v15 | I recently traveled to Toronto for work. I refused to take a red eye though because I feel they are a fly-by-night operation |
| 9 | 3 | v1 | Breaking change? Sorry I don't carry cash |
| 10 | 13 | v7 | My feet really hurt from walking, so I've decided to switch to meters |
| 11 | 14 | v20 | I heard camera stores are always having a flash sale |
| 12 | 6 | v19 | Going camping with my family this week. It's in tents |
| 13 | 7 | v26 | I once read a really great think piece on the business of recovering lost laptops. I found the article to be macbook pro-found. |
| 14 | 15 | v21 | I've never been in a hurricane but I heard it blows |
| 15 | 18 | v23 | Justin kept asking me to make a Halloween based pun. I guess he was afraid I might ghost him |
| 16 | 9 | v12 | Seeing Billy Joel in concert tonight and thankfully nobody started a fire |
| 17 | 19 | v24 | A lot of people are worried about their code getting too complex. And in Ruby, it's not a matter of 'if', it's a matter of 'case/when' |
| 18 | 8 | v17 | I'm in Singapore this week for RedDot Ruby Conf. I have learned that many people here either love the King of Fruit or they're just en-Durian it |
| 19 | 11 | v3 | I wonder what tapas restaurants have to say about this EU App Store ruling |
| 20 | 20 | v13 | When apple product engineers ask their developers for estimates, do you think they iPad their deadlines? |
| 21 | 25 | v2 | I am excited about Apple Vision Pro. I heard spacial computing will be out of this world |
| 22 | 22 | v14 | Yes I'm powered by AI. Aaron Intelligence |
| 23 | 16 | v16 | Back in the 90s web standards were quickly evolving. I really wanted to get experience with cutting edge technology so I decided to do my best and try to participate. Back then, internet technology was still finding its feet, so most standards bodies were formed by theorists rather than practitioners. Anyway, I wanted to throw my hat in the ring so I decided to join a steering committee for an alternative to HTML4. Unfortunately I ended up quitting because, like most steering committees, it took a turn for the worse. |
| 24 | 21 | v18 | I heard Bill Clinton builds his apps with Sequel because he "didn't have active record relations with that app" |
| 25 | 26 | v4 | AR you enjoying Vision Pro? (Read AR as "A are") |
| 26 | 24 | v11 | I brought this type of feature up with a project manager back in the day, but they told me to just put a pin in it |
Do you disagree with these rankings and think the puns should be ordered differently? Write in to tell me about it and I'll show you how you can start your own podcast.