Recently, Jennifer Aniston said that an entire generation would find her hit show Friends offensive nowadays. In my opinion, people are so sensitive these days. We’ve seen comedians get “cancelled” over the years for jokes that seemed commonplace at the time would be considered “impolitically correct” now. Humor exists to challenge. To make people laugh. What does it mean to laugh if not have an initial shock of a joke?
People are so quick to anger these days. It’s like a cult. Even if the joke has nothing to do with the “triggered” person’s demographic. It’s always “I’m offended for them!”.
I’m Mexican. I remember my grandmother and I used to love this old commercial about the “Frito Bandito”. He was a three-foot tall Mexican scoundrel who loved to steal Fritos. A character like that would not be made today. If anything, the person who brought the idea up would be fired on the spot for being “insensitive”.
I’m old enough to remember the “vocal minority” protest Speedy Gonzales because they thought he was a bad Mexican stereotype. Even though my family seemed to like him. Sure, I can’t speak for *every* Hispanic person, but erasing such a hilarious character like the Frito Bandito and Speedy seems more racist than them being in the spotlight.
Maybe you like how people are becoming more “culturally aware”. Maybe you don’t. It’s not my point. My point is that this cult of outrage-this vocal minority-could do more harm by influencing our culture to be more vanilla.