I'm not sure where you've seen people ridiculed for playing it. All I've seen is this is such a cool game, everyine in the world seems to be playing it, that's far from people were being ridiculed, in fact surely you'd be ridiculed for NOT playing something so popular.
Fad? Yes of course, just like the orginal card game was, when I was a kid everyone collected Pogz, I'm sure there's other games and toys that have been collected and blown over. But their part of popular culture and a valuable social tools. Any way here's just some of the things that were thought of Fads at the time you might be suprised
1900-40s
Betty Boop
Monopoly
Pez candy
Slinky
Silly putty
Drive in movies
Minuture Golf
Flappers
1950s
3D movies
Hoopla hoops
Frisbee
Ant farms
1960's
The Beatles
Barbie Dolls
Lava lamps
Mini skirts
Love beads
Mood rings
Smiley faces (now emojis)
Superballz
Trolls dolls
Tie dye teeshirts
Scalectrix cars
1970's
Happy days TVs show
Mopeds
Jumping beans
DISCO
Rocky horror show
1980s
My little pony
Keepers
Rainbow brite
Strawberry shortcake
Care Bears
Smurfs
Slap bracelets
Teenage hero turtles
Garbage pail kids
vans shoes
Converse shoes
Hyper Colour teeshirts
Wrestling
Friendship bracelets
Denim jackets
1990s
Spice girls
Boyzone
Take that
Nsync
Backstreet boys
Pogz
The Rachel haircut
Tamagotchi
Pokemon
Furbys
Beanie babies
2000's
Camera phones
iPods
MP3 players
Speed dating
MySpace
Neopets
Live strong
Bratz