I agree the joke is played out. IIRC, radios would play them because people wouldn’t typically dislike their music so much that they’d change the station or turn the radio off. A lot of music is quite polarizing so people love it or hate it and will leave the station when they dislike a song. Nickelback had a little of every rock genre under the sun, so while some people loved them, few people hated or disliked them.

But then they were overplayed and more people who were on the fence for tired of it. A bit like Mariah Carey’s Christmas song and some of Fallout Boy’s songs.