Why comedy videos from 20 years ago still beat today's humor

Why humor from 20 years ago still beats today's comedy

Is anyone releasing a comedy today that people will still watch on repeat two decades from now? The short answer is that it doesn't matter. Videos from more than twenty years ago —Spanish video-store-era humor, long-gone TV shows and prehistoric memes— are still getting laughs and fueling a market of digital nostalgia.

What's striking is not that people remember them, but that they share them as if they were new material. One of the scenes that has been circulating for 22 or 23 years "still makes me laugh to this day." It's not sophisticated humor: it's the chronicle of a character exaggerating an absurdity with a phrase repeated until exhaustion. Exactly the mechanism modern humor has been losing: repetition, physical gags and unapologetic irreverence.

Humor unthinkable in the age of political correctness

There is broad agreement that many of those videos would be "unthinkable today." You don't need to get into the cancel culture debate to recognize that comedy back then worked with a freedom that simply doesn't exist on the big platforms anymore. Shows like El informal or Lo más plus, with their zapping format and a dash of mischief, kept the laughs coming without special effects or a blockbuster budget. Almost nobody laughs with the same level of shamelessness today; what's left is cleaner, more calculated and, above all, more boring comedy.

It's not just an impression. Many voices point out that since the comedies from Judd Apatow's stable, with James Franco, Seth Rogen and company, there has been no generational handover. The excuse is that "it's impossible now without getting cancelled"; the result is risk-free comedy films. Scenes from Hot Shots, Austin Powers or the Torrente saga still get more laughs than most recent releases, even if each one has its critics.

The meme before the word meme existed

The Risitas videos, especially the paella pans one and the cement bags one, are the perfect example. They've been circulating for decades and have ended up as memes with worldwide reach. It doesn't matter that some of them are staged: audiences know it and still laugh. Humor doesn't depend on truth, but on complicity.

There are also the catchphrases repeated for months, like people who still drop "taluec" or "me cajon em Dios" in inappropriate contexts. Humor became a generational ritual: the fun wasn't just in the video, but in repeating the lines until your friends threatened to end the friendship.

Meanwhile, the question has been flipped: does any video less than twenty years old make you laugh today? Almost none. And that's no longer nostalgia. It's an accusation.