Imagine someone doing this game back then, in that context, passing it around school (before cyberbullying), and it'd be pretty nasty.

We can say "but computer programming is OK, now that it's a status career that rich kids have blessed as cool, and kids don't get bullied like that in school so much, so now it's funny in a non-bullying way", I guess.

Still feels like punching-down, to me, but not everyone knows the earlier context.