I have to come abhor people who just can’t enjoy morbid humor, or more precisely get offended by it as if it isn’t now mainstream.
I assert that “Poor Taste” is an always moving goalpost. It may lurch a few feet forward from time to time, especially in the Bible Belt, its progressively more nebulous since the dawn of Seth McFarlane as a creative force. Family Guy and American Dad, the Crown Jewels of the Fox Animation Domination line up, routinely show murder, suicide, heroin use, 9-11, terrorism in general, religious beliefs of all faiths and plenty of dead hooker jokes. These are 2 of the highest rated programs on American television and have become embedded in our society and our collective sense of humor.
The rules of casual conversation are in flux. It’s difficult to communicate with people who have a ‘pre-McFarlane’ humor views. The ‘last wave’ of humor will always still be viable, but McFarlane has rewritten everything and changed the face of comedy forever.
Who could have foreseen this when Family Guy was repeatedly canceled by Fox? In most cases you would have to say that the cancelation definitely shows there was a time when the show was just too cutting edge to ever be defined as ‘mainstream’. Then a curious thing happened. The show exploded in re-runs on Cartoon Network. There were just enough episodes to make it possible to hook people and acclimate them to a brand new humor that was undeniably ground breaking and funny. A wave of support so strong emerged the show made another return to Fox Network to join the damage control triumph of American Dad, a show made just to fill the McFarlane void as he and his creative team geared up and cranked out some of the best episodes yet. Years later both shows are just getting funnier and more popular.
Conclusions-
If you’re uncomfortable with Dead Hooker jokes and the like, you’re sort of left behind. No one will be held to accounts for making light of any situation. True, everything isn’t supposed to be fair game and some occasions are somber by nature, but things have changed.
