That's supposed to make him feel better, and it should, but instead all Tony can think is that he's put himself on the same footing as Gene's previous masters.

"Great," Tony says sourly. "So I'm not the worst. Real high bar, huh?"

He's gone from 'guy who doesn't do that sort of thing' to 'guy who does that sort of thing, but not the really bad stuff,' which is really not an accomplishment to be proud of, no matter how you slice it.