The unfunny, mean frame around hacking things in unexpected ways probably seemed like a decent literary device, but turned out not to be. But by then the serie

The unfunny, mean frame around hacking things in unexpected ways probably seemed like a decent literary device, but turned out not to be. But by then the series was a series, and like a bad Sunday-paper comic strip back when, just kept going. This seems to be a failure mode peculiar to syndication.