Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

hacker humour
     
        A distinctive style of shared intellectual humour found among
        hackers, having the following marked characteristics:
     
        1. Fascination with form-vs.-content jokes, paradoxes, and
        humour having to do with confusion of metalevels (see {meta}).
        One way to make a hacker laugh: hold a red index card in front
        of him/her with "GREEN" written on it, or vice-versa (note,
        however, that this is funny only the first time).
     
        2. Elaborate deadpan parodies of large intellectual
        constructs, such as specifications (see {write-only memory}),
        standards documents, language descriptions (see {INTERCAL}),
        and even entire scientific theories (see {quantum
        bogodynamics}, {computron}).
     
        3. Jokes that involve screwily precise reasoning from bizarre,
        ludicrous, or just grossly counter-intuitive premises.
     
        4. Fascination with puns and wordplay.
     
        5. A fondness for apparently mindless humour with subversive
        currents of intelligence in it - for example, old Warner
        Brothers and Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, the Marx brothers,
        the early B-52s, and Monty Python's Flying Circus.  Humour
        that combines this trait with elements of high camp and
        slapstick is especially favoured.
     
        6. References to the symbol-object antinomies and associated
        ideas in Zen Buddhism and (less often) Taoism.  See {has the X
        nature}, {Discordianism}, {zen}, {ha ha only serious}, {AI
        koan}.
     
        See also {filk} and {retrocomputing}.  If you have an itchy
        feeling that all 6 of these traits are really aspects of one
        thing that is incredibly difficult to talk about exactly, you
        are (a) correct and (b) responding like a hacker.  These
        traits are also recognizable (though in a less marked form)
        throughout {science-fiction fandom}.
     
        (1995-12-18)