[tomhow]

I hear you, it's just that the guidelines are there for a reason, which is to optimize discussions for intellectual curiosity. Avoiding generic tangents is an important part of that. We hope we can be the kind of place where people can resist the urge to succumb to either titillation or indignation when an article includes what is clearly intended as a silly joke. We all know what it's like when someone reacts to this kind of thing at a dinner party or in a classroom.