[rtb]

Pretty weird "joke" or "a slightly funny hypothetical". It's a plausible but false explanation for an event people were trying to understand, posted to a programming forum. It feels more like disinformation to me. I think it was a bit unethical to not mark it as fictional.

[mypastself]

It does feel more like a hoax/prank than a joke, but I’m not sure I’d call /r/programmerhumor a “programming forum”.