Actually, now that I think of it, probably both conditions can occur simultaneously .. ouch. We really are a hive species.
My reasons for this are a) it is very difficult to find any pre-2005 citation for the joke, despite one supposed reference from 1975; b) the details of the story don't seem to me very plausible given what I know of comedians; and c) it's the kind of thing Penn Jillette would do.
So the story may have already played out in the modern era, if not in this case then perhaps in others: the 'Net is so full of nonsense and mis-information it would be very hard to tell. Social fragmentation of information sources likely makes it even easier today... you could argue that Birthers and the like are an example of this kind of hoax (or victims of it.)
Some untruths even spread dispite the poster knowing the source isn't reliable, just because they have a vested interest in the subject. Blatant racism against gypsies an arabs spread like wildfire on Facebook in sweden this way.
Suspect any gentle conspiracy like that now would have to be in a closed forum or mailing list or something.