It's not so much a joke as a smear. Gore was attacked for claiming to be the inventor of the Internet, but he never said that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_and_information_techno...

To me it counts as a trope and the guidelines ask as to avoid posting Internet tropes, for the very reason that they’re more likely to elicit a groan than a laugh.

We’d love to see good jokes on HN, but they’re a precious rarity. (See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7609289.)

I guess this one stings because I hate that HN is a place where our idea of a joke is mocking the work of a politician who really is credited by the pioneering technologists of the field to to have played a crucial role in enabling our industry to develop.