Okay first of all obligatory "generational labels are bullshit" disclaimer.
But I just noticed a lot of humour made by millennials as adults is very "cutesy" and "dad joke".
If anyone grew up in the 90s or 2000s, you know that we were the total opposite as kids. Seriously it wasn't long ago where the hight of our humour was homophobia and jokes about SA. We were the fucking horrible edgelord generation.
How did we go from being kids that would beat each other up for even looking at the colour pink, to the heckin' wholesome cat video generation?
Honestly I know we make fun of ourselves for the "HECKING POGGER PUPPERINO" shit, but honestly, it's a step up from the edgelord shit we grew up with.
This is, of course, ignoring that a lot of us didn't grow out of it and became your Ben Shapiro's and your Steven Crowders (I am so sorry Zoomers, we failed you hard)
Hmm. Idk if the cutesy ever died, more that it was being hidden under the edge. Like, happy tree friends was predicated on the idea that people liked cute shit to begin with, same with the grossness of invader zim or idk, most of the stuff on Newgrounds, I'm sure there's other touchstones. Edge is a reaction to and rejection of wholesomeness, with an unhealthy dose of self hatred and irony.
Now that the edgelord stuff is seen as cringe, the cute can breathe again. I don't know when the switch happens, like, some millenials i know are still in their edge phase. It's probably something dialectical but I'm not smsrt enough to theorise
Edit: talking specifically about millennials too, I'm deliberately not addressing south park because I'm not confident to tackle it as its own subject, but it's probably the most representative 'edgey' media entry point for that generation
I think there is a cycle where wholesomeness gives way into insincere saccharine causing a reaction of apathetic detachment and irony which itself eventually turns into insincere edginess creating the conditions for a new wave of sincere wholesomeness in reaction. At any point of time there are different currents at different stages of this cycle reacting to both themselves and other currents/subcultures within the greater culture.
I like to avoid the edginess of the moment and consume it later, when it's fermented into the charming edge-stalgia of yesteryear