vibe code cleanup specialist, so, normal coder who fixes what a pretend coder fucks up? well you thought AI would take your job but now two people can be employed to do what one person was supposed to do without AI.
this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
600 points (99.7% liked)
Programmer Humor
26197 readers
1046 users here now
Welcome to Programmer Humor!
This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!
For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.
Rules
- Keep content in english
- No advertisements
- Posts must be related to programming or programmer topics
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
And each one will take much longer than the original coder too!
Not necessarily; you're supposed to throw away the prototype
Jokes on them I'm a vibe code cleanup expert that cleans up with even vibier code.
Infinite money glitch!
"Computer, fix this code and don't make mistakes."
Computer fix this code with just enough mistakes that I can charge them to fix it again, just don't make it obvious.
They clean up AI shitty code?
More like, take a bunch of screenshots of vibe coded website, and treat that as design document while rewriting the whole thing from scratch with clean architecture.
Plot twist they just vibe code the v2
If those dummies accepted the vibe code in the first place and you meet your contractual obligations....
tbh, if they were smart and knew what they were doing, they should have done it that way from the beginning, but they want to cut corners. AI is great at rapid prototyping; but it's not trustworthy enough to call that a finished product.
To be fair, that's usually the fastest option to fix other people's code even if it wasn't vibe coded. Sometimes that's the best way to fix your own code too.
I don't even want to clean up my own code, let alone the unholy fucking abortion created by an LLM and a Linked In "CEO and founder" working in tandem.
What a coincidence! I'm a vibe coder cleanup specialist. I clean up after their brains explode from receiving too much vibration from the computer waves (or something, I don't know how it works exactly. I'm just here with my little sponge)
Wouldn't it be easier with a big sponge?
Well, the brain explodes at the computer. And I'd guess the insides and outsides of a computer are easier to clean with a small sponge (depending on the setup ofc).
Oh yeah. Don't you guys also do murder scene remediation?
This sounds like the GDP meme:
Two programmers are coding in a terminal when they come across a board of scrum tasks.
The first programmer says to the other "I'll pay you $100 to vibe code that task." The second programmer takes the $100 and vibe codes the scrum task using their favorite AI.
They continue coding until they come across a code review from the senior dev, rejecting the pull request. The second programmer turns to the first and says "I'll pay you $100 to clean up that vibe code". The first programmer takes the $100 and cleans up the vibe code, using actual skill and no AI.
Coding a little more, the first programmer looks at the second and says, "You know, I gave you $100 to vibe code, then you gave me back the same $100 to clean it up. I can't help but feel like we both just used AI for nothing."
"That's not true", responded the second programmer. "We fed the AI our code so it would be even smarter next time!"
Narrator: it never did and will never get smarter.
Is this some variant of two guys eat shit?
Context:
Two economists are walking in a forest when they Come across a pile of shit.
The first economist says to the other "Ill pay you $100 to eat that pile of shit." The second economist takes the $100 and eats the pile of shit.
They continue walking until they come across a second pile of shit. The second economist turns to the first and says "l pay you $100 to eat that pile of shit." The first economist takes the $100 and eats a pile of shit.
Walking a little more, the first economist looks at the second and says, "You know, I gave you $100 to eat shit, then you gave me back the same $100 to eat shit. can't help but feel like we both just ate shit for nothing." "That's not true", responded the second economist. "We increased the GDP by $200!"
That's exactly what I was referencing haha, tried to make the analogy work. Might need to smooth out the edges in a few places
load more comments
(1 replies)
Brb, updating my linkedin. I'm dead serious.
I have to imagine hiring someone who advertises themselves as a vibe code cleanup expert would be a dent to the ego.
Yeh, but you only need 10 vibe code cleaner-uppers per vibe coder.
And a vibe coder is a 10x developer.
You just have to mitigate the increased cost of AI API calls.
It pretty much balances out, with the obvious 20% efficiency boost - which is where everyone makes their money: companies, developers and ~~shovel~~ AI platforms... All 20% efficiency boost. Which directly relates to profit boosts. 20% line goes up!
Which also pays for the datacenters, the ~~shovels~~ GPUs, the power, the cooling and the water for the cooling. It's all cheaper, cause AI is at least 20% more productive.
Even if your vibe-coder-code-fixers turn into vibe-coder-code-vibe-fixers... That's just another 20% efficiency boost. Basically printing money! Oh, but you need to buy more ~~shovels~~ GPUs. But that's also a win because ~~shovels~~ GPUs don't have unions or require holidays. Think of the profits! They work 24/7.
And all you need are vibe-coder-code-vibe-fixer-code-fixers.
...As long as your vibe-coder-code-vibe-fixer-code-fixers don't turn into vibe-coder-code-vibe-fixer-code-vibe-fixers (I'm so lost, I think that's right).
Edit: forgot some ~~shovels~~
It depends on whether you're the vibe coder or the guy that just fired the vibe coder hired by your predecessor.
A paycheck is a paycheck. Lots of us exchange our ego for daily bread — we have a club and everything. We meet every day after work at your local bar.
Okay, what is vibe coding? Because it sounds to me like just doing coding based on your feelings or something, which makes absolutely zero sense.
Coding using an LLM and not even reviewing output
Ah. That makes more sense.
Friend's colleague needed Excel to, "return the month where the majority of days in the week fall into". Had Copilot do it and sent it to my friend, apparently impressed by making such a robust looking formula.
The formula:
My friend's solution a minute later:
I can see it could be slimmed even less, but I assume the table is large so LET is doing performance stuff.
If you ask copilot to return a directory tree using MATLAB script it writes a function using a for loop and about 20 lines of code. Meanwhile the documentation defines this task as
dir("*")
How this person gave up underlining the jobs after some time
problem create solution , solution creates problem type shit
Oh, so all of a sudden Hugo from New Jersey's not good enough to get a red underline?
Yeah wtf
The underlining is so inconsistent in this picture it looks like an AI did it.
Not to be nitpicky but those locations are all over the place, lol. I wonder what the actual percentage of programmers need to pivot to slop cleanup duty.
From my experience, a whole lot.
Think about how hard it is to join a new company and learn to maintain their codebase - at least in that situation you are likely going to have someone more familiar with it walk you through it.
Now understand that no such resource exists for vibe code - you’re on your own from the get go.
Depending on how royally the hiring party screwed up, there could be a lot of desperate money to be made
Killing the vibe
Just do your best plumber / car mechanic impression. "Gee, this codebase is really messed up, looks like I need to basically replace everything."
("That can't be true, that's what every other programmer I showed this to said. Are you all lying?" "No, we're not lying, this really is a screwed up codebase.")
Vibe check
Vibe coding wild but vibe therapy is insane. Wild time to open up to a company when asylums are coming back. From git commit to hospital commit
Let me guess... AI generated fake profiles? Or just a severe lack of creativity. Definitely one of those.
Quite the opposite; these are probably the most savvy opportunists making themselves available for headhunting by clueless recruiters chasing The Next Big Thing.
They will end up getting phat contract offers to tidy up the poorly implemented AI-generated code put in by some C-suite desk jockey after they fired their engine engineering team.