Comedy hasn't been the same since the rise of social media.

Insightful post, and basically you are right. I wonder if it’s a complete shift or if there will be some reversion at some point. We’re in an interesting time, there was a need for sensitivity to some issues, certain jokes may have crossed boundaries for some and I get that, along with humor being generational on some level, but I do get where you’re going with your post. I will also say that Free Guy felt like a YA movie, and a video game one at that, so the type of humor you might expect from that may follow a certain tone…

You make some interesting points, but I think that's not the issue here. The issue is not about fear, but rather, it's all about ego. Ryan Reynolds has built his career on being a "nice guy" rather than talent, so he's not about to ruin that by doing any type of comedy that steps on toes. If anything, he thinks this kind of boring avoidance comedy makes him more charming - and it seems like people agree with him, sadly.

its a total 1984 thing that no one seems to get: let's erase/alter the past for a brighter tomorrow (or more controlled people) It's so incredibly obvious, yet no one seems to be calling it what it is.

hypocritical people calling the shots, and not seeing their own hypocrisies. soon, they will all cancel all of each other and there will be nothing left, because everything will always offend someone.

how did we get this stupid, and what do we do to reverse it??

I can tell you one thing. Comedy\humor in the USSR in 1970-80s was edgier than today's Hollywood.

Probably because the world is run by Karens and Darrens who complain about everything that isn’t safe and non-provocative (at the same time we gorge ourselves on mindless violence/profanity/sex). Pop culture has no balls anymore. This political correctness started in the 90s and has now run amok in every facet of our entertainment.

So the effect on comedy is, everyone now is terrified of saying the wrong thing. Everyone becomes self-censoring, and the remaining options for what can be said are slim pickings. Jokes then become like what you see on reddit, where you can sense the fear in users of saying the wrong thing and running afoul of the hive-mind. This fear leads to jokes having this obsequious quality to them. The comedy writers are afraid of telling jokes that are liable to get the social media lynch mob set upon them.


100% spot on!

SJW's, left wingers, and other pussies that love censorship are to blame.... not social media in itself.

Ironically, the hive mind is in all of the people falling over themselves to agree with a critique that is incoherent. So HOW is the comedy in Free Guy different? We see a contrast with David Letterman's "kind of sarcastic humor"... in a film starring the most sarcastic leading man today. Granted, Reynolds' sarcasm is not normally bitter or cutting, and here he's playing against type (a know-nothing rather than a know-it-all).

The comedy is described as "weird... like how Napoleon Dynamite is in its own category." Well, that's daffy. If it's considered sui generis, then it's, by definition, not comparable to much anything -- past, present, or future. It's not indicative of anything. That can also explain its success. It's a pretty standard corporate product. It's inspired by the Matrix and video games. It stars a white protagonist who pines for an attractive white woman with non-white sidekicks and a villain who speaks with a non-American accent. The formula seems intact.

This weak-ass movie review is a pretext to complain about contemporary mores. Yes, there are more topics off-limits. Spirals of silence. People thinking twice for what they say because of online mobs. Social sanctions regarding etiquette (such as maybe not invoking the word "lynch," as it's a gross exaggeration). So how do we explain that phenomenon?

One explanation is that the online environment allows traditionally marginalized groups to meet up -- everyone from the overweight to pedophiles. They form communities and cheer each other on. Identity groups are borne out of victimization. There's a feeling that society does not recognize their inner value. Meaning is found in living "authentically." Where does the newly found power come from? The logic of collective action says that small, but intensely motivated groups will tend triumph. That's the way it's been for years (e.g., subsidies for farmers, gun ownership activism, etc).