This is definitely a phenomenon that has been around for a long time. From a certain epistolary novel published around seventy years ago I quote the following p

This is definitely a phenomenon that has been around for a long time. From a certain epistolary novel published around seventy years ago I quote the following passage: "If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is 'mean'; if he boasts of it in a jocular manner and twits his fellows with having been scored off, he is no longer 'mean' but a comical fellow. Mere cowardice is shameful; cowardice boasted of with humorous exaggerations and grotesque gestures can be passed off as funny. Cruelty is shameful— unless the cruel man can represent it as a practical joke."