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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3812 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 11, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I think you are on to something, of all the entertainment genres comedy seems to be the most dependent on the mood of the times. Standup, comedy films and TV shows rarely age well (there are notable exceptions).

But there's another element, people today enjoy cringe which also seems to be a more recent phenomenon. People like seeing others humiliated. Schadenfreude is a natural human vice, but enjoying that feeling you get when you watch a video of someone be humiliated? I don't recall America's Funniest Home videos featuring cringe to that extent, really /r/cringe on Reddit portrays a genre that doesn't seem to have a pre-internet equivalent.

I think the rise of cringe humor is mostly due to the popularity of The Office and its various copycats. I also feel like cringe humor was more of a 2010s phenomenon (the way "random" humor was a 2000s phenomenon) and this decade we're seeing more of what I would call "saccharine" humor in shows like Ted Lasso where the goal is to making jokes that no one could possibly find offensive (and I therefore find totally unfunny).

It really is incredible how quickly the reddit tier comedy memes come and go, and you look back and wonder how anyone found them funny. Comedy seems to be a very communal form of entertainment where everyone is on the same wavelength through some sort of psychic powers. Other genres seems more individualistic and timeless, like romance or adventure. Comedy ages like milk.

I don't know if comedy always ages like milk, even if it's very "of its time." For example, Beavis and Butthead is very characteristic of 90s "dumb idiot" humor (Homer Simpson, Adam Sandler movies, Dumb and Dumber, etc.) but has stood the test of time quite well IMO.

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