This makes me think of the wpost story I just read "States love jokes on road safety signs. The feds aren’t laughing."[1] I imagine any effective humor will have an audience that is smaller than the audience you are trying to reach with universal messages.
Just as traffic signs probably shouldn't try to be cute to a specific demographic at the expense of confusing or even worrying others, an good error message should serve two purposes. Give some type of next steps for the users, and second provide something specific enough to be useful if the user is able to contact customer support.
On Massachusetts highways it is common to see "funny" electronic messages like "Wicked Stahm Coming" about an impending blizzard etc., and even though I get the "joke" it is enough to confuse me for a moment and I find it a nuisance. I have never seen this phenomenon outside of the USA and I hope this trend stops.
Just as traffic signs probably shouldn't try to be cute to a specific demographic at the expense of confusing or even worrying others, an good error message should serve two purposes. Give some type of next steps for the users, and second provide something specific enough to be useful if the user is able to contact customer support.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2023/02/13/hig...