Social media gave rise to insult comedy. The re-post w/comment feature on all the shit-posting social media apps gave us this culture of "look at this fucking idiot" insult comedy.
No, social media just mainlined it. Insult comedy (thank you, Don Rickles!) existed. Don Rickles used it and made it respectable. Then TV "comedies" put it into everyone's living rooms. Norman Lear may have been a great producer. But he completely misread the viewing audience. "All in the Family" mainstreamed bigots and made them lovable. Archie was a hero to a good number of people who were once considered uncouth and ignored.
Good observations. I think it’s appropriate in the category of entertainment. Unfortunately our politics (here and in most of the world, really) has hybridized with entertainment. It has made governance unserious. Just another reality TV show!
Agreed. And I usually include reality TV in that toxic brew. I’m not even referring to The Apprentice in particular, but the entire genre that elevated dysfunction as entertaining. Then people tended to live their lives as if they were in their own drama-filled show. And random insults are part of the drama/entertainment formula.
I love “insult comedy”. The Republican base demands that style of entertainment. Vitriol is their mother’s milk.
Social media gave rise to insult comedy. The re-post w/comment feature on all the shit-posting social media apps gave us this culture of "look at this fucking idiot" insult comedy.
No, social media just mainlined it. Insult comedy (thank you, Don Rickles!) existed. Don Rickles used it and made it respectable. Then TV "comedies" put it into everyone's living rooms. Norman Lear may have been a great producer. But he completely misread the viewing audience. "All in the Family" mainstreamed bigots and made them lovable. Archie was a hero to a good number of people who were once considered uncouth and ignored.
Good observations. I think it’s appropriate in the category of entertainment. Unfortunately our politics (here and in most of the world, really) has hybridized with entertainment. It has made governance unserious. Just another reality TV show!
Agreed. And I usually include reality TV in that toxic brew. I’m not even referring to The Apprentice in particular, but the entire genre that elevated dysfunction as entertaining. Then people tended to live their lives as if they were in their own drama-filled show. And random insults are part of the drama/entertainment formula.