There have certainly been occasions -- albeit rare -- when a humorous HN comment has made me laugh out loud, or at least grin.
But most of the time I find attempts at humor here to be annoying and distracting. Especially when it devolves into a deep thread of few-word or one-line responses that reminds me very much of things I dislike about Reddit.
Put another way: I don't come here for humor. That doesn't mean I won't appreciate it sometimes, but that's not what I'm here for, and the majority of the time I find it to be an unwelcome distraction from what I actually come here for. I come here for discussion, whether just to read it, or to participate in it. Short, humorous comments almost never lead to discussion.