Yes, but take another step further: you know the joke, so what is it saying when it's applied to the board game in this way? And why use Kickstarter to do it?
Mocking Kickstarter is a stretch -- but they are exploiting it. Kickstarter is doing well, but it's still in a vulnerable balancing point (perceptual and functional) between legitimate way of funding a business too risky to be commercially viable in a traditional market; and as an easy front for con-men to fleece the unsuspecting. That's painting with broad, bold strokes, but you get the gist. A project like this, where the thing you are funding isn't the thing it says it is, where you are "paying" money to contribute to a joke and participate in a guerilla theater performance under the guise of contributing to the production of a new game, is precisely what Kickstarter does not need.
Kickstarter has a unique problem in that it is nothing more than a patronage system, but a lot of contributors complain when the product they paid for (not "the project they funded," mind -- the "product they paid for") does not appear, or takes longer to appear than what they were promised. If you have ever heard the word "scam" thrown about in conjunction with Kickstarter, you have seen this at work. They usually aren't talking about how that person took their money and ran away with it; they're talking about how that person took their money, tried the idea in a way they thought would produce results, then had nothing to give to their backers. It's inherent in the "backer rewards" system to expect the quid pro quo, but Kickstarter explicitly promises nothing. Kickstarter is modern patronage. You invest, you do not purchase -- or at least that's how Kickstarter wants to be. Kickstarter is fully aware that they make money because there are plenty of businesses willing to pay a premium to have proof-of-market with no risk.
In one way, Emperor's New Clothes is pretty clever at using Kickstarter in a most literal way: they are taking money in exchange for participation in a piece of art. In another, ENC is proving to those folk who want product they pay for that some things on Kickstarter take a lot more thought than just putting down some cash. As much as it may not be in tune with the idealist version of Kickstarter's purpose, it needs those people who are happy to drop money on every project that catches their fancy. Transparency and building trust are Kickstarter's keystones.
I do not dislike ENC as an idea. I dislike ENC in its execution on Kickstarter.
