"It seems today that all you see is violence and movies on sex on TV,"
sings Lois Griffin at the beginning of every Family Guy episode ever released.
It's true that the world has become more tolerant towards certainly formerly controversial issues when it comes to entertainment. Things like swearing, sexual content/innuendos, blood and gore, allusions to drug use, toilet humor, religious satire, etc. are extremely common nowadays and all over the entertainment world.
But the one thing you hardly ever see nowadays is anything demeaning towards certain groups of people. Things like black jokes, gay jokes, sexist jokes about women, etc. are by far the biggest taboos in the world of comedy now and often make national news whenever comedians cross those certain lines.
People like James Gunn and Kevin Hart got into some hot water for making such jokes an entire decade ago. But today while doing searches for some of my favorite SNL skits on YouTube, I came across this classic Jimmy Kimmell sketch that shocked me:
Jimmy Fallon also did a similar skit that I remember seeing as clear as day on SNL when I was little. Right now, we live in a world where James Gunn gets totally fired for child rape jokes he made over 10 years ago, Apu gets yanked off The Simpsons after one comedian disapproves of him, "Baby It's Cold Outside" gets pulled from the radio due to subtle rape references, and the Smash Bros. Ultimate crew was forced to edit Mr. Game and Watch's Indian head dress after a few people found it offensive.
So why does Kimmell still have a show in this uber politically incorrect world where jokes you made in the freaking '90s can come back to haunt you and get you fired? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Jimmy Kimmell and would be devastated if he ever got cancelled over something he said years ago. But at the same time, I'm very shocked that he did such an outrageous thing and the extremely PC years of 2017-early 2019 haven't had any effect on his status as a comedian whatsoever.
It seems like only non-famous people who make more cult classic-type independent works online and aren't fullblown celebrities (Filthy Frank and SuperMarioLogan which has more racist puppets than I can count are two examples) can get away with that stuff in the 2010s.