Side note: what's going on HN lately with all this pun/troll/meme nonsense? Please leave that stuff on reddit.
> It's not that funny stuff isn't amusing, it's that it's counter to what HN might be trying to achieve.
So, keep it serious. No Having fun. Gotchya.
If HN is trying to achieve a soulless takes-itself-way-too-seriously environment, then I'd agree with you. Hopefully that's not the case (but probably is, per the observations I've accumulated over the years of hanging around here).
> intellectually-stimulating conversation
Humor can be intellectually-stimulating, even in the form of clever puns. Whether or not the pun in question was clever (or at least sufficiently-clever to be amusing) is a different question.
> diverse group of people that have diverse (and sometimes opposing) viewpoints.
Humor happens to be an excellent way to both convey and consume those viewpoints, especially in a way that's actually conducive to all parties actually coming away with a better understanding of one another.
It's a housekeeping/ broken windows thing, puns and off topic one liners that exist to solicit some type of thoughtless reaction in the reader, are the first signs of a forum in decline.