What makes something a "joke" game

[King Piranha Plant]

I think it's also important to mention, don't worry much about labels or categories. Remember MFGG used to be a place where making games weird, funny, bizarre, or even clunky, was awesome, and a hilarious part of the community. Not that this applies to your game (it does sound like people just misunderstood that your graphics and whatnot were placeholder), but in general I feel kind of bummed out by the term "joke game" in general.

BUT I understand why it's useful these days, and I think it works especially well to organize games that are straight-up intended to be a joke or gimmick. I just think Mario as a series is weird, anarchic and funny overall, so "joke game" doesn't mean much to me and takes the fun out of it somewhat.