I didn't think of that particular joke, and I never mentioned up voting (in your words, gratifying). My mind was considering the topic at hand, and I felt the s

I didn't think of that particular joke, and I never mentioned up voting (in your words, gratifying). My mind was considering the topic at hand, and I felt the stark change of tone was nice. I like seeing some humour every now and then interspersed in threads. Some get up votes some get down votes, and your reasoning doesn't really explain why, since a common sense of humour surely indicates that lots of people would have thought of the same joke, and thus every funny joke on HN would be down voted?