How online humor has changed

I originally wrote this as a thousand word post. But it was insufferably preachy and self righteous. So let me try as a shorter note.

Awhile back I lamented to a friend that Stuff White People Like was a great blog, but that it hadn’t been updated in over a decade.

But what about Middle Class Fancy, isn’t that the same thing?

No. It’s not.

Stuff White People Like is part of the old internet. It was made by upper-middle class people as a tongue-in-cheek bit of self-deprecating humor. It wasn’t too serious, and there remained some level of self awareness.

Middle Class Fancy is, as far as I can tell, made by upper-middle class people with the intention of making fun of working class people, and especially first generation middle class people. There’s no element of self-aware fun. No self deprecation. It’s elites making fun of non-elites.

And most online humor has gone this route. The Onion used to be cheeky and self-aware. Not it’s mainly about how other people are stupid.

There’s not that much good humor left online.