Marge Sort
Getting a computer to sort a list of numbers is surprisingly complicated, and there are a zillion different ways to do it. This means mathematicians and computer scientists think that it's super interesting and spend a lot of time studying, developing, and comparing sorting algorithms. You could spend a whole day just watching YouTube videos of people representing these algorithms in music and dance.
The joke is a play on merge sort, one of the more popular sorting algorithms. At the top of the image you have a bunch of different-sized pictures of Marge Simpson, and at the bottom they're all in order from smallest to largest. The image is a diagram of how merge sort works.
Explaining sort algorithms is a popular job interview question in the tech industry, so I'll go into more detail here.
Imagine a bunch of numbers all standing in a line. We want the smallest number to end up on the left, and the biggest number to end up on the right.
25743986
A computer using merge sort will split those numbers up into pairs.
25 74 39 86
Then, for each pair, it'll check if the smaller of the two numbers is on the left. If it's on the right, the computer will make the numbers switch places.
25 74 39 86 \/ \/ \/ \/
25 47 39 68
Next, the computer will go two pairs at a time to see which pair starts with a smaller number.
25 47 39 68 \__/ \__/
It'll put those smaller numbers in a new group. This is where the merging begins.
5 47 9 68 2 3
Then it'll repeat over what's left of the pairs, comparing the first two numbers in each one.
5 47 9 68 \_/ \_/ 2 3
Then it'll add the smaller numbers on to the new groups.
5 7 9 8 24 36
Lather, rinse, repeat:
5 7 9 8 \__/ \__/ 24 36
7 9 245 368
2457 3689
Now you have two groups of 4 numbers. The computer will compare the first number of each group:
2457 3689 \____/
...and will repeat from there.
457 3689 \___/ 2
457 689 \____/ 23
57 689 \___/ 234
7 689 \__/ 2345
7 89 \___/ 23456
89 \/ 234567
9 2345678
23456789
