Eh, that's your view of it. I first came across this joke in high school, with our chemistry teacher. He didn't do it to feel superior; if he wanted to do that he could humiliate us in different ways. He used it as a teaching opportunity to show how a slight exaggeration on true facts and a complicated sounding word could confuse people.

He probably also did it to show us why learning some chemistry nomenclature could help us out. He was a fun teacher that loved showing us the joy of science, not a condescending asshole.

You seem to think we all enjoy tricking people, but there are several comments here explaining the joke for people who don't get it. If they weren't here, I or someone else would have. Not everyone who has a little fun with something someone doesn't know yet does it maliciously.

The whole 1 in 10000 xkcd thing is something I love, and whenever my fellow IT people get angry that some client doesn't know something we find obvious, I counter that there's tons of law, fashion, medical etc stuff we dint know but our clients are experts at.

Let me be clear: I myself am not a big fan of "mock people and then pretend it's about teaching them". This is just being a scumbag.

But this is not meant to be that, or if it's used by someone in this capacity, it's a very poor laughing matter indeed.

It is good, however, as a conversation starter to bridge the gap. Meant not as mockery, but as an illustrative example to explain how we shouldn't be afraid of "scary words chemists say".

Do you really need someone to explain this to you?

Only worthless pieces of dogshit think that trickery nonsense is amusing.

Because it's not meant to be amusing. But also, goddamn dude take a step back lol...

Anyway, it's meant as an attempt to get through to ignorant people who genuinely believe that chemical = bad.