Category: Humor

While millennials have seemingly maintained a youthful look through healthy habits, skincare, and balanced diets, Generation Z has reportedly been experiencing premature aging due to the potential overuse of skincare and poor lifestyle choices.

Apparently, those born between 1981 and 1996 have acquired a better understanding of healthier diets and skincare, which has led millennials to appear more youthful than older generations did at the same age.

However, those born between 1997 to 2012 may have been overexposed to techniques millennials have come to learn in their twenties, therefore, starting to use products incorrectly, causing them to age prematurely.

Experts found that while millennials age well, Gen-Zers show premature aging from skincare and lifestyle

Image credits: Unsplash

Dr. Rasha Rakhshani-Moghadam told the Daily Mail: “Overuse or unnecessary application of filler and toxins at a young age may affect the natural facial development, causing younger patients to look older than they are.”

She further explained: “Millennials generally have a heightened awareness of skincare and diet, compared to previous generations, often incorporating a more holistic approach to well-being. 

“This shift involves a greater emphasis on preventive skincare practices and a focus on balanced diets.”

Lip and cheek fillers contribute to Gen-Zers appearing older, experts say

Image credits: freepik

The phenomenon has also been noticed on social media, sparking TikTok videos trying to explain “why Millennials look younger than Gen Z”.

Research on TikTok for videos including the “Why don’t millennials age” or “Why millennials look young” questions have garnered millions of views.

Gen-Z TikTok star Jordan the Stallion said: “Millennials age differently from this oldest generation and the newest generation.

“Millennials look way too old for their age or way too young. The newest generation all look too old.”

“We don’t age because we take naps and we have a morbid sense of humor lol we laugh at everything,” a person commented on Jordan’s video.

Those born between 1997 to 2012 may have been overexposed to techniques millennials have come to learn in their twenties

Image credits: Sam Lion

Dr. Ross Perry, medical director of Cosmedics Skin Clinics, told the Daily Mail: “It is not uncommon to see 18-year-olds with lip filler.”

He explained: “20-year-olds are having Botox and fillers, semi-permanent makeup in the form of eyebrows and lips, all of which combined can make you appear older, but actually once you start down this route, it’s very hard to go back to being entirely natural, especially when the ‘affirmations’ start on social media.”

Ross continued: “Combined with lifestyle and environmental factors, for example, it’s become “fashionable” to have a tan again, so statistics have told us the use of sunbeds are on the rise, again, not only are you putting yourself at risk of skin cancer further down the line, but also premature aging will be happening far quicker.”

People aged 11 to 26 use harsh skincare products that could damage their skin down the line

Image credits: KoolShooters

Amish Patel, an award-winning aesthetics practitioner and skincare expert, echoed the previous opinions as he said: “We know that lifestyle choices also have an impact on the aging process- vaping, smoking, drinking excess alcohol, eating a poor diet, not wearing a high SPF all affect your skin, so if you are starting to develop bad lifestyle choices from a younger age, it makes sense that you are not going to age well into your thirties and above.

“Developing good skin care habits is important, but these don’t have to be overly complicated or expensive for Gen-Zers.

“The exaggerated trend for overfilled cheeks and lips also distorts the face and masks the natural youthfulness you possess in your twenties. In fact, it can make you look a lot older than you actually are.”

“Millennials generally have a heightened awareness of skincare and diet, compared to previous generations,” a doctor said

Image credits: Sayan Majhi

Dr. Sophie Shotter, who runs Medical Cosmetic Skin Clinic in London, further claimed that Gen Z’s premature aging is down to “lifestyle and beauty trends”.

She said: “We can’t necessarily say if this reflects in their actual biological age, but certainly in their appearance.

“I think, perhaps having wrinkle-relaxing injectables and fillers too young and embarking on an approach that homogenizes faces is partly responsible, especially with the reality TV and influencer cohort of celebrities.

The rising popularity of sunbeds is another factor believed to contribute to Gen-Zers appearing older

Image credits: senivpetro/freepik

“There’s a right age to embark on treatments, and for most people, it isn’t before the age of 30 for age management reasons. 

“There are very few people under this age who will truly benefit from wrinkle relaxing injections at younger ages, although there are some and it has to be decided on a case-by-case basis. 

“Having these treatments before they’re truly needed can sometimes make someone appear older (in the wrong hands) with an almost mask-like appearance.”

“It’s so sad society pushes these impressionable young people into that these days,” a reader commented

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Matteo‘s company hired a Highly Paid Consultant. The HPC came in, took one look at their C# codebase, and said, “You’re doing everything wrong. But don’t worry, I can fix it!”

So he “fixed” it.

For example, what if you had a string, and needed to parse it to some concrete type. Why, you just do this:

public static T ToType<T>(this string value, T defaultValue)
{
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        {
                return defaultValue;
        }

        T result = defaultValue;

        try
        {
                result = (T) Convert.ChangeType(value, typeof (T));
        }
        catch
        {
        }

        return result;
}

This particular code doesn’t do very much at all- a basic null check followed by an attempt to convert, a swallowed exception and a default value output. There are built-in methods, like Int32.TryParse, but that wouldn’t work well with using generics. I don’t love it, but it’s not WTF.

public static T? ToNullable<T>(this string value) where T : struct
{
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        {
                return null;
        }

        T? result = null;

        try
        {
                result = (T) Convert.ChangeType(value, typeof (T));
        }
        catch
        {
        }

        return result;
}

It’s the same method, but this time where the default value is a nulled nullable. The real bonus here is that this time, they qualified the generic to require it to be a struct– which in C# terms actually requires it to be a “value type”. Which, as an aside, Convert.ChangeType requires its type parameter to be a value type- which means for consistency, they probably should have put that qualifier on ToType.

Again, this code, alone, isn’t really a full on WTF. So we need to put it into context: this is the Highly Paid Consultant’s home-grown JSON library, which handles both parsing and generating JSON.

Now, we’re getting the sense that someone’s been reinventing the wheel, awkwardly. So let’s look at one last method- ToJS. What do you think ToJS does? If you said, “clearly, this must be what converts an object to JSON”, you’d be wrong.

public static string ToJS(this string text)
{
        return text.Replace(@"", @"\")
                .Replace(@"'", @"'")
                .Replace(""", "\"");
}

This just escapes your strings for you.

There’s one last piece of context: all of the code this developer wrote, every method that could throw an exception had a handy, dandy, exception handler. That handler logged the exception and did nothing else.

Like a damp fart, the HPC hung around the office for awhile, and then slowly dissipated to another contract. The stench, however, is going to take Matteo some scrubbing to remove.

One of the very first images to go viral and emerge from the USA in 2024 captured love, passion, and inclusivity, which hopefully indicates a great start to the year.

CNN broadcasted a passionate kiss between an interracial same-sex couple immediately after the New Year’s ball dropped in Times Square, New York City, on Monday (January 1).

The image showed two men wearing large Planet Fitness hats locking lips in a lengthy display of affection as soon as the countdown to 2024 concluded on “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen”.

Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper hosted CNN’s live New Year’s Eve show, which showed two men kissing after the ball dropped in Times Square

Image credits: andersoncooper

The romantic moment sparked praise on social media, with people taking to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share their excitement to see some queer visibility on mainstream media.

“Gay people watch straights kiss on TV every day. Get over it and get used to it,” a person wrote.

Another individual commented: “Wishing you all a happy planet fitness CNN interracial gay kiss New Year!”

Nevertheless, such visibility often ignites backlash from conservatives, as an X user noted: “CNN’s first shot after the ball drop appears to be an interracial gay kiss. The outrage will be hilarious.”

The romantic moment sparked praise on social media, with people taking to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share their excitement

Image credits: Times Square NYC

SCREAMED pic.twitter.com/E3C2XxtAvK

— Ryan Aguirre (@aguirreryan) January 1, 2024

Unfortunately, that person’s prediction turned out to be rather accurate, as the image further sparked homophobic and hateful remarks, too hurtful to be repeated in this article.

Other comments suggested that Anderson and Andy, two openly gay men, were already hosting CNN’s live New Year’s Eve show, therefore suggesting that showing more queer individuals on mainstream media was not needed.

Starting 2024 off right!#CNNNYE pic.twitter.com/sqc3ZqPEbn

— Joey Moser (@JoeyMoser83) January 1, 2024

However, a study suggests that people who identify within the LGBTQ+ community are still overwhelmingly underrepresented in mainstream media.

According to Nielsen’s “Being Seen on Screen: Diverse Representation & Inclusion on TV” report, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people make up an estimated 4.5 percent of the U.S. population, yet, they were 6.7 percent of the top 10 recurring cast members in the top 300 programs on broadcast, cable and streaming platforms in 2019.

The report also found that 26 percent of the top 300 programs included at least one cast member who identifies as LGBTQ.

The image showed two men wearing large Planet Fitness hats locking lips in a lengthy display of affection as soon as the countdown to 2024 concluded

CNN’s first shot after the ball drop appears to be an interracial gay kiss. The outrage will be hilarious. pic.twitter.com/49qtAB7cmi

— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) January 1, 2024

While the numbers alone paint a picture of increased visibility, Stacie de Armas, Nielsen’s senior vice president for diverse consumer insights, said it’s important to differentiate presence from representation.

She told NBC News: “When you look across the TV landscape, the LGBTQ population looks well represented, but when we look deeper, and at intersectional groups, it’s clear there is a need for greater diversity in LGBTQ representation.

“White LGBTQ people are most represented on screen, while female LGBTQ people of color and Latinx LGBTQ people are below parity compared to their population estimates.”

“I knew there’d be issues and I love it!” a viewer quipped

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Alyssa inherited some code from… well, she isn’t entirely sure from whom. There are names that come up in git blame, but even for some more recent commits, Alyssa has no idea who they are. Contractors? Interns? Randos pulled in off the street and handed a keyboard?

Based on the code quality, the last option is surprisingly likely.

const endpoints = mainThingie?.endpoints ?? [];
const filteredWidgets: WidgetWithEndpoint[] = widgets.filter(
  (widget): widget is WidgetWithEndpoint => {
    if (!widget.endpoint) return false;

    return endpoints.map((mainThingieEndpoint) => _.isEqual(widget.endpoint, mainThingieEndpoint)).includes(true);
  },
);

The customers of this application are allowed to define their own custom widgets for certain pieces of data. The purpose of this block of TypeScript is to find all the widgets that map to this “Thingie”- and it’s worth noting, these names are not anonymized. widgets come from one backend service, while “Thingie”s come from another. Their endpoints (stored locally in each backend service) must match.

So, how do we do this filtering? Well, first, we discard any widgets that don’t have an endpoint. That makes sense.

Then, we map our “Thingie” endpoints, and this is where things start looking a bit weird. What are we converting an endpoint to? Well, a boolean value based on _.isEqual. _.isEqual does a deep comparison of two objects. Then, if that array contains a true value- the includes call- we know the widget has a matching “Thingie”.

Now, one thing: endpoints have a clear ID field, suitable for a primary key, and thus is the only thing you actually need to compare- a deep comparison isn’t needed. And in fact, it’s the deep comparison that drew Alyssa’s attention to this function.

One day, it was working fine. The next day it broke. One of the backend services added a field to the endpoint JSON, used by some of its consumers. This additional field broke the deep equality test.

The developers responsible have a habit of, “misusing libraries to do things they weren’t intended to do,” Alyssa writes, “and then bending over backwards in all the other places to accommodate that.”

Following a stint gone wrong, a social media influencer has taken the accountability road and issued a public apology.

Upon receiving backlash from a “social experiment”, Natalie Reynolds took to her X page (formerly known as Twitter) on the last weekend of 2023 (December 30) to say sorry.

Resharing the initial clip which had stirred up some controversies, the influencer wrote: “I’ve made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment and I don’t expect to be forgiven.

“I am simply here to apologize.”

Following her flopped social experiment where she wore painted-on pants at the gym, Natalie Reynolds issued a public apology

Image credits: nataliereynolds

Unfortunately for the content creator, many people weren’t in mental space yet to receive the apology, as an X user commented back: “You’re not apologizing because you’re sorry. I doubt you are. you are apologizing because of the backlash you’re getting. you deserve every single part of it but you’ll be fine.”

“Apologies have to come with changed behavior,” another person wrote.

“I don’t expect to be forgiven,” Natalie wrote on X

Image credits: onlynatreynolds

I’ve made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment and I don’t expect to be forgive. I am simply here to apologize. https://t.co/cbj8Ujy1Ur

— natalie reynolds (@onlynatreynolds) December 30, 2023

Nevertheless, a separate individual seemed to appreciate Natalie’s sentiment, as they penned: “There ya go. If this isn’t sarcasm, was that that difficult? Everyone makes mistakes in their life. Learn from it and move on.”

Natalie had initially faced criticism after donning painted-on pants for a social experiment at the gym, leading to an unexpected clash with a man, ultimately sparking a viral debate on appropriate workout attire.

In a livestream on December 27, the 25-year-old Kick streamer decided she would partake in what she said was a “social experiment” by wearing body paint to the gym.

The social media star went on to share details about her questionable outfit, explaining: “So, I started getting this painted on me at 11:30 am and I got done at 4:15 pm.

“So, I’m sitting up for, like, five to six hours. It’s painted-on pants – so this is all paint. This is swimsuit bottoms.”

Natalie was previously confronted by a fellow gym-goer, who told her she had to leave the building due to her “inappropriate” attire

Image credits: onlynatreynolds

Confidently going to the gym for a workout, she was suddenly filmed being politely confronted by a man who called her attire “inappropriate”.

The fellow gymgoer approached Natalie and her filming team before saying: “If you don’t have clothes on, you need to be out of here, ma’am.” 

However, Natalie firmly exclaimed: “I do have clothes on.” The man continued: “Not fine, I work in the industry enough to know. I work in the entertainment field.”

While the disappointed man walked away from the content creator, he also appeared to say that you’re not supposed to “videotape” in the gym.

Natalie took to her X page to post a short clip of the interaction, which has since gone viral with 35.8 million views. The content creator captioned: “Guy in the gym presses me for wearing painted pants.”

The influencer tried to shame the man, accusing him of “pressing” her for her fashion choices

Image credits: onlynatreynolds

Guy in the gym presses me for wearing painted paints… 🤬 pic.twitter.com/3w85pCEEfv

— natalie reynolds (@onlynatreynolds) December 27, 2023

While it may have first appeared to be a fun and lighthearted joke, many viewers went on to share their grievances.

The influencer was also slammed by X’s community notes, which enable users to add context to content shared on the social media platform.

Accompanied by a link to a Healthline article on proper gym etiquette, the note read: “The man in the video is protecting the overall gym etiquette according to which you should wear clothes suitable for exercise.

“Wearing unsuitable clothes or none at all is considered to be disrespectful towards the other. It is also a hygiene risk to others.”

“Apologies have to come with changed behavior,” a person commented on X

It’s New Year’s Day, and it’s a great opportunity to look back at our story from last year that is in the most dire need of a New Year’s Resolution: A Single Bug. —Remy

Matt‘s team had a party after their last release. It was a huge push, with tons of new features, that came at the end of many months of work. On the Monday after the party, they came back into work for unsurprising bad news: nothing is perfect, so there were several issues and defects that needed to be patched, quickly.

Since QA is the team responsible for signing off and approving any work, QA is the team that also owns the defect tickets. Matt and his team can’t do any work without a ticket, which meant they spent almost an entire day knowing there were bugs to fix, but without any idea of what bugs to fix.

The next day, QA finally finished triaging the issues. There were a slew of low priority tickets, none of which were bugs, but enhancement requests- this screen is confusing, this path through the application requires too many button presses, no one can find this option. There was, however, only one bug ticket.

“Hunh,” Matt thought, “that doesn’t sound so bad.”

Upon opening the ticket, Matt discovered that it was indeed bad. There were almost a dozen serious bugs, but for whatever reason, QA had bundled them into a single ticket. This made everybody’s life much harder. Every change in the code had to have an associated ticket, every bug ticket had to have an attached test plan, every ticket has to have a single owner and assignee (but Matt’s entire team would be splitting this work). Everything about getting this fixed was harder because QA had created a bottleneck by tying together unrelated bugs into a single ticket.

So Matt went over to Bruce, the QA manager who’d created the ticket. “Could you please split this ticket?”

“No, I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. Just abandon this one and make new ones.”

Bruce shook his head. “You don’t understand. These are post release bugs. Which means we released software with bugs in it. Which means the QA process failed. When the management dashboard shows a dozen high priority bugs post-release, management thinks that someone wasn’t doing their job properly. That looks bad. So, we make one ticket, roll all the issues under that one, and it looks much better on the dashboard.”

Matt was offended that anyone would try to game the system like that. QA was making everybody’s job harder and trying to conceal issues from management. Well, the joke was on QA- Matt went straight up the tree to the management team.

He sent an email, laying out what was happening, and most important, why it was happening. QA was trying to hide the failures in the QA process. Later that day, one of the directors set up a meeting with Matt to discuss the email.

“So, I understand you have some concerns,” the VP said, “and I just wanted to show you how we view that.” The VP pulled up the management dashboard, and flipped back to an old release, from a few years ago. Many of the metrics showed red stoplights. “So, here’s a release that went badly. Too many tickets for bugs.” They flipped to the most recent release. Here, all the lights were green. “And this is a release that went well.”

“Right,” Matt said, “but this release only looks like it went well because they only opened one ticket for many bugs!”

The VP nodded without listening. “Right, but this dashboard tracks open tickets. We like releases with only one open ticket. The lights are green, see?”

“But there are more bugs than there are tickets. They’re hiding the fact that there are more bugs!”

“But this dashboard doesn’t track bugs, it tracks tickets.”

There are few things more immovable than a manager with pretty green lights on a dashboard. Goodhart’s Law struck again. Matt admitted defeat and fixed the ticket the hard way.

For as long as people have been telling jokes, others have been stealing them. Or, as we are about to show you, building upon them.

There’s a subreddit called ‘Your Joke But Better‘ where, as the name suggests, platform users share pictures of folks using someone else’s humor as a setup for theirs.

Created in 2019, this online community currently has 19.8k members, so it’s still in the infancy phase, but the punchlines in its collection continue to grow exponentially.

From witty one-liners to a bit of character development, here are some of the best ones.