Juvenille office antics in eye of beholder

We have a star program at work. It's not unlike the "congratulations, you didn't pee the bed today" type of system. It's supposed to inspire people. It doesn't really have that effect on me, but oh well.

Yesterday, someone messed up when they sent a star and it made it look like one of our co-workers had sent themselves a star. We joked with the guy and then someone else in the office decided to make it look like this same co-worker had sent himself a second star.

Most people thought it was funny. We don't know who sent the first one, but the person that sent the second one apologized to the target. End of story, right? No. The brass apparently takes this star thing just a little too seriously, and there are appearing to be repercussions. These are the same people that were earlier in the day joking about other things that I found borderline offensive.

I guess I'm used to "executive privlege" but I think they've taken this a little too far.