Well, with an increasing version system, you can never tell when you're finished. Is version 3 FINAL the final version, or is some new maintainer going to come make version 4 anyways? If you iterate toward 0, your final product can be awib-0, and you'd be hard pressed to find a new version number without further confusing the three people who got what you were going for.
Am I missing something/is this part of the joke/is it just a typo? It's... ah... messing with my mind a little.