Was the flag that funny?
Did I miss something. Did the flag tell a joke. He laughed pretty hard. A very creepy laugh.
shareThere's a bit more to this...
It was, bitterly, funny to be planting the flag on an unknown planet, millennia in the future and probably long after the United States would even exist... But Taylor was also an angry misanthrope and mocking the action of one of his fellow astronauts was very much in character.
Taylor has a character arc in the story. He starts off believing that the human race is worthless, hoping to find something better in deep space... Then he winds up defending humanity and, finally, telling Dr. Zaius (About the planet's original, human, inhabitants) "They were here before you, and they were better than you". And then, of course he finds out the truth.