Deano’s answer to: “If someone marks a joke answer ‘not helpful’ on Quora, does that mean they didn’t find it funny?”

For a joke answer to be successful on Quora, it must meet the following requirements:

1. It must answer the question as directly as possible, and show intent to inform the majority of readers and the original querent.
2. It must be funny on some level.
3. It must be a joke or parody answer, either obviously so to a large margin of answer voters; or subtly enough to escape their understanding, and lie in wait for a chosen few to snicker at now and then.

If one looks long and hard enough, it's not difficult to find a fair number of answers, even "best" answers, that could be considered "joke answers" – not merely humorous, mind you, but intentionally absurdist, mocking, or otherwise subverting the serious tone of the site overall.

If someone marks a joke answer "not helpful" on Quora, does that mean they didn't find it funny?