The Effect of Modern "Humor" On Movies, TV, and Pop Culture

[Spike Spiegel]

I was just thinking about how in today's pop culture, everything gets made fun of, to the point where the really important things start to lose their ultimate meaning.

For example, take the recent death of Michael Jackson. The Friday after he died, one of my MySpace friends posted a bulletin titled "My Top Nine Michael Jackson Jokes." I mean, seriously, WTF?! This is someone who was important to a lot of people all over the globe. Is that what he should be reduced to, "jokes?" The man just died!

Also, I think the recent crop of poorly executed "spoof" films such as Epic Movie, Scary Movie, Superhero Movie, and Meet The Spartans contribute to this negative effect. Some people I know don't even watch movies seriously anymore. They're just waiting for the crappy, perverted version in the next "spoof."

I think that it can be very fun and positive to take a satirical look at all of the sometimes ridiculous things that come and go over the course of our lives. But where does it end? Are we doomed to become a culture of mentally lazy slobs because we can't handle anything "serious"?