I don't think your conclusion is supported by your premises. Specifically, I have 5 kids and, while they all learned with humor, they still find humor in language. Specifically words like "poopy" and "fart". :)
As for Perl, I always find humor in Perl.
My criteria for good software:
Does it work?
Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?