I understand that this is off-topic, but is it really necessary to downvote it to invisibility? It's a silly joke. It costs you two seconds of your life to read it, and none for laughing if you don't find it funny. Just move on.

This place can be awfully humorless at times.

I think it's meant to be. Much as I love a bit of humour, take a look at reddit. Endless pun-threads and stupid jokes do drag down the quality of conversation - and people are no doubt afraid of the slippery slope.

As things stand, I like HN the way it is, and if I feel like something a bit more laid back then i read proggit.

A reasonable answer, but I keep thinking that there has to be some middle ground between pummeling the occasional (and clearly not mean-spirited or cruel or nasty) joke and the barbarian hordes of pick your least favorite other place.

Edit: Based on the voting, I'm clearly in the minority, so I'll leave it alone in the future.