The entire point was: "Heh, I'm going to make light of this issue while not conveying any helpful insight for thinking about it, and if it's close enough to satire and takes the right position, I'll make it into the NY times."

Seriously, op-eds like this remind me of what my selection of commentary looked like before the internet.

How is it clever to joke about "gosh, the worst we get 'round these parts is cheating on scantrons, shuck-a-muck."