The code for the $(fn) shortcut is:

return jQuery( document )[ jQuery.fn.ready ? "ready" : "load" ]( selector );

It's unclear what the intent of this code was, but the jQuery.fn.ready test has no effect. jQuery.fn.ready always exists, so the code is the equivalent of:

return jQuery( document ).ready( selector );

That also matches people's expectation that $(fn) is the exact equivalent of $(document).ready(fn).

The attached patch removes this dead code.