Aside from the good stories, I like knowing that I can read intelligible, mostly interesting comments here. Sometimes I just don't want to hear quip after quip.
I fail to see at which point I recommended HN be comprised of "quip after quip". Or you've assumed that there is some sort of all-or-nothing requirement between quips and intelligible comments.
Don't you find that humor feeds a positive cycle that results in it being inevitably over-represented in the body of comments made on a website? I know that is one of the reasons I can't stand reading the comments at Digg anymore.