They used the edit function to walk back their comment as a 'joke' after my post was submitted, and managed to make things worse in the process.

Would you joke about firing someone for a mistake during an interview? I would consider that a dealbreaker if I were interviewing someone, as in "this interview is over, go home".

Do you consider HN an appropriate forum for pithy one-liner jokes that do not contribute to the discussion? Reconsider.