Sure, and ideally those are downvoted. But low-grade jokes fit in here even less and are usually downvoted. At least that's how it is before HN finishes its transition into Reddit, at which point they won't be downvoted and we'll be back to scrolling through bad jokes like "lol CNN in the title looks like CNN the news network lmao, anyone else notice?" to find serious comments.

It's a fight worth fighting. "C'mon it's just a joke lol" or "it's only a comment about the title" only assist in that transformation.