One other curious and quite insufferable thing which exists now is when a show/movie/game will give an unmistakeable and unsubtle nod to some other bit of media or information, either from the show/movie/game itself, or some other show/movie/game/cultural artefact.
And the learned and informed modern-media-gooner who is "in-the-know" will go: "aaaaaaha!" and "oooooh, clever!"
How has this happened? How is it considered so substantive and sophisticated for a show to make surface-level nods to other media? Please, someone explain this phenomenon to me.
I think Rick and Morty do a good job ridiculing this trope, but it doesn't seem to have been effective at slowing the tide. When a movie or a rap song alludes to something outside of itself or makes a meta-comment about itself, or breaks the fourth wall in some way, people are titillated beyond belief, I find.
What exactly is tickling them so hard?