It's just how this site works. The shorter a comment is, the more likely it gets upvoted. The stuff we always see upvoted in threads are always surface level thoughts or old jokes/memes that can be easily digested. People upvote it because you can recognize the ideas but never consider them. Where as people who have insight to add, their comments are much larger and often glossed over because people are too lazy to read them and won't bother upvoted so the good content is pushed down.

As for the jokes, people just upvote overused unfunny jokes or memes just written as a comment and all jerk around it like it's a profound galaxy brain hilarious comment. Just find niche communities and usually the content is really nice to browse.