Finally made it through this whole thread. There's something about Jon that is so horribly compelling. It might be the fact that he is normal-IQ (unlike Chris and Len) but so staggeringly bereft of any social knowledge or theory of mind.
I'm still mulling over the fact that that Jon's former advisor sys that Jon "admitted" to plagiarizing the SNL sketch, yet Jon swears up and down that such a sketch does not exist (going so far as to suggest that some Kiwis hired Michael Palin, Lorne Michaels, and John Cleese to fake it). I don't see much reason to doubt the advisor's account, though it is unfortunate that we can't contact this person and find out more about what went down. This contradiction suggests two possibilities:
1) Jon genuinely did not plagiarize, but when confronted by the newspaper staff he panicked and admitted to it, perhaps thinking that it would make it blow over sooner.
2) Jon did plagiarize and he's lying about everything.
The first theory sounds pretty plausible — I have no doubt that Jon would melt down when faced with authority figures carefully scrutinizing both him and his work. It would explain why we've never heard a detailed account of his actual dismissal from the paper: if there was a way to use that story to portray himself as a victim, he would. But it'd be difficult to do so if, in a moment of panic, he confessed to the very ethical breach for which he was being punished.
What really kills me about Jon is his total lack of curiosity about the world around him. He is aware, in a way that Chris and Len aren't, of the breadth and depth of his ignorance, but as far as I can tell he has never sat down and taught himself anything. When someone suggested he use Dropbox for managing his files, he angrily retorted that he didn't know how to use it - but dropbox.com has a whole host of instructions on how to use their product. They're right there on the front page. He is perfectly capable of learning it, and it would have taken less than five minutes out of his entirely-empty day to do so, but he chose not to. He seems dead set on only acquiring knowledge that others are willing to spoon-feed him. His world is so tiny. It'd be heartbreaking, if he wasn't so racist, sexist, and belligerent.