This weekend, NBC show Saturday Night Live reran its debut episode as a tribute to George Carlin, who passed away earlier this week. The airing of this episode has sparked many debates among television fans and one of the most common questions to be asked is: remember when we knew what funny was?

It seems that these days, television’s humor is more of a wink and an arched eyebrow than it is an all out guffaw. Long gone are the days of the obvious jokes of the Carol Burnett Show, sitcoms and even Saturday Night Live. Now comedy seems to serve as a “if you didn’t get that, then you are not smart enough to watch this show” dividing line in audiences and shows that do source their material in obvious comedy are deemed “stupid” or, worse “not smart.” (Does anybody else remember when those two things used to be synonymous?)

To be sure, shows like Saturday Night Live seem to be struggling to find a balance between obvious and physical humor and the arched “aren’t we clever” eyebrow. Sitcoms are few and far between in primetime. Why?

The fact is this: people like to laugh and people are more likely to laugh if they don’t feel like they have to laugh to prove themselves worthy of the joke. I don’t know about anyone else, but I have a lot more fun watching comedies that make me roll around guffawing than I do watching comedies that are meant to make me feels superior to others.

What is comedy anymore? Is there still a place for the obvious, physical prat falling comedy that we used to know and love, or has it truly devolved into dramedy and snark? When did “not getting the joke” become the thing that made one person better than another?