Good point. I hadn't noticed that pattern (consciously), but now that you mention it, I see what you're talking about.

I'd expect that, in a vacuum, the most that would happen would be the manager mentioning the complaint to the employee and stating that this wasn't appropriate. I also expect the employee's response would be to sulk and write in his LiveJournal or whatever about the bitch who got him yelled at by his boss for a little off-hand remark about comic books, but that's because my faith in humanity is fairly low right now.