At this point, the joke is only being used to make fun of the punishments being handed out. The joke has entirely derailed from "It's an IP, laugh!" to "You can get in trouble for making this joke, laugh!". People are just making fun of the extremely harsh punishments being handed out. I'm fairly confident that this joke would've died out into obscurity by now, like all do, if these extreme and very harsh punishments weren't being handed out for it.
I completely understand the idea of why these are being taken seriously, but these punishments are far too extreme for mere jokes. It's just ridiculous to think that someone that has been around on the server for YEARS can be completely fucking exiled from this community for making such a stupid joke.
The fact that someone making an IP joke can be banned from the server for the same length as a ban for racism, homophobia, etc. is just appalling. I'd love to hear what the thought process is for handing out punishments as harsh as this for something so tame.