Anyhow, what's this thread about?
Nor is Google+ in hospital; it's one of those patients who leave early because, having a lot to do at home, they convince themselves that they feel well.
That doesn't appear to be one of the guidelines when commenting on HN.
For reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Perhaps ironically, making comments about "likening HN to Reddit" despite having a young account IS explicitly mentioned in the guidelines.
Humor is fairly universal
Reddit comments are invariably a cesspool of shit outside of a handful of decent, smaller subs.
Reddit subs lack a consistent moderation quality, though the ones who moderate well, and I'll give AskScience and AskHistorians as stellar examples, maintain exceptionally high-quality discussions. They are also not entirely humourless (AH's FAQ addresses this and points to some examples), but there's a difference between being overrun by cheap jokes, and using dark humour to point out an obviously unclothed emperor.
I've used Google+ since public beta, was tremendously enthusiastic for it, and have been washed through disillusionment after disillusionment in the process. The extent to which it's exposed what I'm finding to be the true Google -- a largely evil advertising empire with a vestigal, and yes, sometimes principled technology arm attached -- has been both profound and ironic (I doubt this was the original intent).
It's not that Google are alone in being an evil tech company, the most evil, or even above average. But something huge rotted in that beast and is consuming it from the inside out.