Referential comedy accelerated dramatically in the early 2000s

Evidence

The case study analyzed in this chapter is 30 Rock, a television show that constructed a dense thicket of ironic references and economic relationships. There are a number of sitcoms, past and present, that exhibit a reflexive, highly referential style comparable to 30 Rock: historical precursors, such as The Simpsons (1989–present), Seinfeld (1989–98), The Larry Sanders Show (1992–98), South Park (1997–present), Family Guy (1999–present), Futurama (1999–present), and Arrested Development (2003–6, 2013–19); its contemporaries, such as The Office (2005–13), Community (2009–15), Parks and Recreation (2009–15), and Archer (2009–2023); its descendants, such as Portlandia (2011–18), Bob’s Burgers (2011–present), Rick & Morty (2013–present), and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–21); and Tina Fey’s later work, such as Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–20), Great News (2017–18), Mr. Mayor (2021–22), and Girls5eva (2021–present). … Figure 6.1 uses Internet Movie Database (IMDb) data to compare total numbers of references made in reflexive television comedies over the past thirty years. The Simpsons, currently in its thirty-fifth season of densely referential television, popularized this style of collage and continues to outpace its rivals, with more than 7,400 references to film, television, video games, and other media. If we stack the references and consider them cumulatively, as in figure 6.2, then we can see this phenomenon accelerate in the early 2000s and expand the market for referential branding to over twenty thousand references, just within this limited set of television series. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 353

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim of acceleration in the early 2000s — is that a genuine inflection or just more shows existing? Worth noting the dataset relies on viewer submissions, which the author himself flags as flawed.