IMO you don't need a reason for something like this, it's just fun. We all spend a lot of time solving problems with software and I believe most of us neglect that you can make stuff just to make stuff. I wrote an angular directive that prints out ascii butts: https://www.npmjs.com/package/pw-butts, I doubt anyone will use it for anything, but I enjoyed making it and it's fun that it exists. If it helps, think of it as "Art".

I think asking why something is a joke, or why someone could possibly find a dumb thing funny is pretty similar to asking people to justify why they enjoy some type of art.

I don't get the appeal of abstract expressionism and I feel like trying to make something in that genre would be a waste of my time, but I wouldn't go around criticizing it as stupid or vocally expressing my perplexity.

Different people get amusement/enjoyment from different things, and it often appears weird to others.

> "...waste so much time..."

I think you are overestimating the time they put into this. Ha