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There is site learn you a haskell with title "Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!". Does "Great Good" mean "very very good"? Does the whole phrase mean "learning Haskell is good for you" or "learning Haskell is good for whole world" or something else?

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Is there a point in me asking what does "learn you a *" or "* you a *" means? I feel like it is also a joke on/parody of a term but I cannot remember which one. Sounds like he wants to buy me a drink. )sorry for bad english :P ( – naxa Jul 6 '12 at 7:24

5 Answers

up vote 14 down vote

It's a deliberate mistake, as is "Learn You". I think this is based on a comedy routine by Baron Sacha Cohen called Borat.

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There are a lot of deliberate mistakes in that tutorial (among many other wonderful jokes). They’re a rather good parody of common mistakes by inexperienced non-native speakers. – PLL Dec 23 '10 at 4:28
up vote 13 down vote

I'm inclined to think it's a parody of "For great justice!" from the badly-translated game, Zero Wing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us

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up vote 3 down vote

I think it's a Haskell joke, playing on the functional programming style used in that language.

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I'm inclined to believe you, but that answer seems too easy without a more specific/detailed explanation. – Thom Blake Oct 15 '11 at 19:01
up vote 1 down vote

It could mean 'good' in the economic sense, where it is a noun. But somehow I doubt it.

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up vote 1 down vote

I'd be more inclined to interpret "for Great Good" as a form of "for the Greater Good".

In that case it corresponds with "learning Haskell is good for whole world" per your suggestion.

Compare to "Making the world a better place, one person at a time".

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protected by RegDwighт♦ Jan 14 at 19:41

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