Even when people begin referring to you as an expert coder, those dreaded red squiggly lines popping up in VS Code every few minutes is something that never really goes away. Now, I’m nowhere near an expert coder, and there are times when I can barely finish a few lines of code without being greeted by yet another red squiggly line.
When I was looking for silly coding extensions that simply make my coding experience more fun (and don’t do anything to make me a better coder), I found an extension that compliments me as I code. It’s called Rainbow Fart, and it says stuff like “Excellent,” “Keep going,” and “You’re a rockstar programmer.”
Naturally, I wondered if there were extensions that did the complete opposite of Rainbow Fart. I then discovered a few VS Code extensions that literally scream at you or make faces whenever you make a coding mistake.
Hotheaded VS Code
Like a tutor who yells every time you get an answer wrong
From this entire list, the Hotheaded VS Code extension is the one that really lives up to its name and stands out for actually screaming at you when you mess up while coding. It’s been installed by over nine thousand people, and pretty much has only one function: yell at you loudly whenever you make a coding mistake.
As soon as you install the extension, it springs into action mode, and the yelling begins the second you start typing. This is because the red lines often appear while you’re still writing your first few characters of code, as the IDE thinks there’s already a mistake. Unlike the Rainbow Fart extension I mentioned above, which seems to switch between the same three or four phrases, the Hotheaded extension has a wider range of phrases, each one yelled at full volume.
For instance, when I typed the first line and the red squiggly line appeared, a female voice yelled, “That’s not right,” and a couple of seconds later it said, “Okay now you’re just wasting my time.” As I kept using it, some of the stuff I had to hear included “Are you dumb,” “Your code is bad,” “That’s never gonna work,” “Do you think this will compile? Buck up,” “I can’t stand more of this,” and the most extreme of them all… “I can’t wait for you to be gone.”
If it isn’t obvious, I wouldn’t recommend using this in a professional setting like at work or in a lecture class. Even if you’re wearing earbuds or headphones, the yelling might startle you and make you laugh out loud in the middle of it, which probably isn’t ideal. That said, if you’re coding alone at home and just want something silly to lighten up the mood, Hotheaded is an extension I think you should download and try out at least once.
Who knows, it might end up being the little chaotic boost you need to get through a long, tiring coding session or, at the very least, give you a good laugh before you get back to fixing real errors.
Hotheaded VS Code
Memes with purr-sonality
This is probably the extension I had the most fun using, although it did startle me initially (and my eardrums are still recovering). The CatVerse extension shows trending meme cats right next to your code, and it doesn’t stop there. The cat memes actually change based on how many errors you’ve got in your code.
To make things even more chaotic, it plays background music that matches the mood. For example, when your code is spotless, you’ll see a dancing cat accompanied by the viral “happy happy happy” sound from TikTok and Instagram. But the moment the first error showed up in my code, the dancing cat instantly turned into a crying cat, and loud crying sounds started blasting in the background.
When my code was completely filled with errors, a cat inside an apple (which was honestly just confusing) started moving like a flashing ambulance siren, with actual siren sounds wailing in the background. Right below the cat memes, the number of errors in your code is also displayed. Though I love the concept of this extension, and it definitely made my experience a lot more fun, I do wish the volume of the sound effects was adjustable. At times, it felt like the cat was taking out all its anger on my innocent ears.
In Your Face
Where every error pulls a face
Out of all the three extensions, the In Your Face extension is the one that’s been installed the most, with almost seventeen thousand downloads, making it the most popular option among developers looking to add some fun to their debugging.
The In Your Face extension is similar to the CatVerse one, except it doesn't show trending cat memes. Instead, the extension displays Doom "Ouch" faces that change depending on the number of errors your code has. The number of errors your code has is displayed below the visual. Though the extension doesn't play any background noises, it's still a fun way to make debugging a little less painful.
There's also another extension called Incredibly In Your Face, which shows different Mr. Incredible Faces instead of the Doom ones. The Mr. Incredible faces shift from calm to increasingly distressed as your error count rises, adding a more dramatic flair to your coding mistakes.
Why not let VS Code roast you and your code?
Whether you’re just writing your first “Hello, World” or have been coding since you were a kid, I definitely recommend downloading all of the extensions above. They’re hilarious, weirdly motivating, and make debugging feel a lot less painful.