I think if you find yourself being assholishly defensive of something, that's a sign that it wasn't very good in the first place. Good stuff doesn't require people to be an asshole to defend it.

And I think that's at the bottom of this. (Maybe. I have anemia atm, my brain isn't braining well, but I felt like ooh insight, so here it is.) Someone told the PA guys they weren't funny, and that moreover they were hurtful, and they know that person was right. But how could that be, they are the Great and Almighty PA Guys, come to save the videogame world from itself! Cognitive dissonance = massive jackholery.