I couldn't agree more. The joke construction was a bit weak though, when you miss a good part of the audience. Add something like, "I mean, could you imagine the chaos it would cause if IE told websites it was really Mozilla?" and you demonstrate mastery of the subject matter, which should be enough to let other experts know you were facetious rather than ignorant. Unless you have timing issues... or need the comedian's plausible deniability.
I don't find that as funny, I think making the sarcasm more obvious makes the joke less funny as well. I prefer to take my chances than to go overboard and neuter the joke.
Yeah but it's not Reddit, it's HN. You have to know your audience, read the crowd. On Reddit it's 90% sarcasm so there's no fixing it. Here it's the reverse and people take things seriously without a tell. You just have to bury the tell in another joke or it will ruin the funny.
Yes, very well, as first action of the Joke Approval Committee, I propose that this august body instantiate the Recursed Approval Subcommittee, whose role will be to instantiate the Recursed Approval Subcommittee.
As soon as the subcommittees hit their break condition (0), they'll break for coffee and donuts, and I can submit my "joke" to the JAC. And I don't make a habit of repeatedly posting the same joke, but I cannot make the promise in this case.
I've never posted sarcasm online without at lease one person (that guy) who takes it seriously and decides to reply. But I think it's worth it because the people who get it will get it. If a small group doesn't then who cares (if everyone doesn't then you did a bad job constructing a joke).
