N.E.R.F.

A funny article, but more just an accurate observation. I’ve noticed that this phenomenon makes it harder on writers attempting to make timely comedy (whether it’s us at CH, or SNL, or even late-night shows), because by the time you’re producing your sketch or any form of take on a popular phenomenon, the world is not only bored of hearing about it, they actively despise hearing about it, and so any satirical jab that doesn’t occur within a day and a half risks being met with a backlash. This wasn’t the case even a few years ago.
It extends to music and movies too, of course. Zach Galifianakis got his big Hollywood break with The Hangover in 2009, and by the time Due Date came out this past summer, almost everyone was complaining that he was overexposed. He’d been in one hit movie! If Chappelle’s Show had been on the air a few years later, I can’t help but think that the popular obsession with its catchphrases and characters (which was already annoying enough in a pre-viral world) would have caused people to turn on it rather than worship it. In a culture that kills its darlings so quickly, how can anything or anyone have any staying power?