If that's true those people have been maintaining a joke for literal years, and spending substantial amounts of time producing software. Do you expect them at the end of their lives to crack a smile and say "ha! got you!"?

Personally I'd expect them to take the joke with them to the grave

I was just showed an ethernet cable by a local hifi shop.. $4000. People are buying this stuff. A joke is a joke, but I don't think people will actually spend that amount of money just to keep up a joke.

For my own sanity I'm choosing to believe it is indeed satire.