I think misreading something like this is a perfectly understandable thing. It's definitely a 'had me going there for a second' type of joke. The unusual thing

I think misreading something like this is a perfectly understandable thing. It's definitely a 'had me going there for a second' type of joke. The unusual thing about this one is its spread and the (seemingly ongoing!) insistence by some of the taken that it was diabolically difficult to tell it was a joke. I suppose the latter contributed to the former.