I don't know if they were making a JS joke but I have legitimately had newer programmers tell me that Java is an interpreted language because it compiles to a bytecode language which is interpreted by the JVM. Inversely I've had people argue that JS and Python are compiled languages because their interpreters convert statements into bytecode before executing them. When someone starts trying to argue those points I find its best to just give them a thumbs up and leave the conversation.
Describing Javascript can be confusing. C++ compiles -> C compiles -> assembly language compiles -> 1-for-1 to machine code. But Javascript be like "Javascript is the programming language interacts with your browser" or "Javascript conforms to the ECMAScript specification that describes how the language should act but is implemented according to the browser vendor's interpretation of said specification, and is further compiled according the browser." And that only covers browsers' Javascript.
And I'm not even sure if the above is 100% accurate.
