Alas, irreverence has been subsumed by mere grossness, at least in the so-called mass media. What we have now -- to quote myself at my most pretentious -- is a nimiety of scurrility with a concomitant exiguity of taste. For example, the freedom (hooray!) to say almost anything you want on television about society's problems has been co-opted (alas!) by the freedom to talk instead about flatulence, orgasms, genitalia, masturbation, etc., etc., and to replace real comment with pop-culture references and so-called "adult" language. Irreverence is easy -- what's hard is wit.
-- Thomas Andrew Lehrer (9 April 1928 - 26 July 2025), American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician, On the current state of satire, in Rhino Records online chat (17 June 1997)
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