That last part feels a little aggressive in this case... The Wikipedia article he linked to is actually pretty interesting, relevant, and appropriate. Sure the presentation is tongue and cheek, but so are half of the comments on this site...
Yeah... There are a lot more jokes and sarcasm being voted up on HN these days. It's always been around, but it used to be voted down a lot more. Can't say I'm happy about that change. It seems the fate of all vote-based communities to eventually devolve into Digg 3.0...
After all, who is to know that a "throwaway" account actually gets thrown away?
That's the problem when forums have a lot of sarcasm. It becomes even more difficult for anyone to judge your intentions. When people in "witty" forums say mean/dumb things they get surprised by how many readers think they are serious. And, some of them respond with mean/dumb things in seriousness. And, in not-seriousness... Usually there's an indistinguishable mix. And, even when you say something constructive, a lot of people will assume a negative intention and get upset that you are so disparaging.
So, yeah. Every few months I get in the mood to welcome a witty noob. Doesn't always go well :P
This sounds too convoluted a process.
We have vote up and vote down buttons. If the people like and upvote a funny (but trivial) comment, in the end it's their prerogative.
FWIW Steam has a second voting dimension for humour in users game reviews.