| The jokes fall flat because it's no longer taboo, it feels derivative even if it was original, and the context is gone. This is why Bob Hope is lame to us. He may have popularized the "tight 5" standup format but everyone copied him and many do it better. This is also why Amos & Andy is just a fairly uninteresting half hour of blackface racism or why Mr Yunioshi in breakfast at tiffany's just looks stupid now. Sure these are racist but when you look past that, they're also not funny any more. They're pointing at some, bringing focus to it, but it has no more symbolic resonance. It's also why if someone made say mrs doubtfire today it'd look like an outdated flop. There's a societal context that gave these things a dynamic which no longer exists. It's actually the same reason Monica lewinsky and draft card jokes wouldn't work today. There's no longer a supportive scaffolding to give it the context. Race and sex based comedy can still be done, it just needs to live in the 2021 context. It's still racist and sexist, which are both morally objectionable, but unlike this site, it could probably still also be funny. For instance, you could do a black Mr. Magoo who gets treated with constant dangerous racial prejudice but in the magoo character, always assumes good intentions and miraculously survives everything. Runs into klansman, thinks it's a costume party, etc.. You might also be able to pull off the 3s company dynamic (in the original, straight guy needed to convince everyone he was gay so the premise was "straight man in the closet") but using a different spectrum that's more relevant to today's conflicts. |