Let’s say my wife, who weighs more than me, keeps nagging me about something, and I tell her I don’t want to hear about it anymore. She shoves a bible towards me, because she doesn’t believe me about something and she wants me to swear on it. I slug her hard in the face with my fist, and then I say I felt threatened by her. Do I get off?
Not unless you have a girlfriend on the side.
Back to the OP, and leaving aside the specifics of the Battlin’ Buzz Incident –
No, it should not be generically legal to beat up an annoying jerk.
It should be an admissible defense (or mitigating circumstance) to bring in the extent to which the other guy was being an annoying jerk, on a charge of hitting him – not beating up, just hitting – as long as you did not use excessive force.
Hey, you could have an entire cottage industry of “expert witness” by jerkologists and annoyance therapists …