zlacker

> This is a style of internet humor that went out of fashion about 10 years ago.

You know what else has happened in the last 10 years? People got stupid.

Between 2017 and 2023, the percentage of U.S. adults at the lowest levels of illiteracy increased from 19% to 28%. Some studies show that the US's peak literacy was around 2015 and has been decreasing ever since.

>>mapont+(OP)
How? How do 28% of people not know how to read?

>>mapont+(OP)
This article is not some intellectual thinkpiece that only the literati can comprehend. Trends change, humor evolves. If "shoop da whoop", rage comics, leetspeak, and motivational posters aren't funny anymore, it's not because people "got stupid".

>>unethi+u1
Fifty four percent of Americans now read below the sixth grade level, and the trend is getting worse rather than better.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/

>>marcel+22
I'm not talking about the Literati. Anything above the sixth grade level is no longer suitable for the majority of the population.

>>unethi+u1
It'll be below PIAAC level 1 or similar. Even below that level many people can read simple text and extract basic information.

Perhaps it also includes people who can read other languages, but not very well in English.

>>mapont+e4
I assure you, the reason McSweeney's is no longer funny is not because the humor is too smart. "peer review deez nutz" does not require reading above the sixth grade level.

>>marcel+m5
Except it is still funny. You just don't like it.