I think it’s more like 11% of people both don’t know what HTML and when prompted to pick from 3 options guessed that it was an STD.

I prefer to imagine they simply misspelled SGML. :D

So let's assume that x% of people will say any dumb shit they find funny when asked in a survey.

What would be a question that has an obvious correct answer, but not so obvious that people start fucking around?

"What color is a red ball?" probably would be too easy and people would start answering sarcastically.

"What are french fries made of?" is probably too hard.

Yes. Apparently a double digit percentage of people answering surveys respond "yes" to the question "are you deceased?"

SSC estimated 4% and calls it the Lizardman Constant [0].

[0] https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and...

We all feel that way with it from time to time.

Other symptoms include javascript, cookie banners, and newsletter signups.

LOL!

next thing you know, people are gonna be saying that vectors are an std too.

std::vec::Vec

One can read from it that many people attribute HTML to, say, military - if it's in particular MIL-STD, not just random STD.