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.