A lady comes to an unlicensed plastic surgeon to have her... ahem... a little more narrow - she just remarried, and her new husband likes it tight. No problem, $100. Next year, she comes with an opposite request - remarried again, new husband likes it loose... no problem, $100. And so, year after year, she had the same surgery back and forth. About seventh time, the fee was $1000. - Why so much this time - you said it was a routine surgery? - That's the point, my lady. I'm an artist, I certainly don't want to get into routine. I've installed you a zipper.

Now why is this a programming joke?

You wouldn't know. You never had customers like that. Uh? So you did have some? And what did you do? Created a different version of the same thing each time, or just added flexibility to your code and made the users switch between options as they like? Well, that's the point: install the zipper.

This joke is actually a part of business philosophy in my old company. For those who speak Serbocroatian, a version of it in that language is on their official website - www.alas.co.yu