I think it's just what the cultural bandwagon is on right now. Sad sacks have always been funny, being outrageous is sometimes funny, but being an asshole is becoming less and less so. So rather than making fun of other people all the time, it's about making fun of ourselves.

Some people can pull it off without being annoying (Dan Harmon comes to mind), but it's rare.

I saw a couple clips on YouTube. As an aside, using a European VPN server + that search means I'm now getting UKIP stuff in my recommended videos. The sacrifices I make.

I'm reminded of this great show called The Young Ones. Not in terms of the humor, because the Young Ones was funny. But they had random musical acts in the middle, and did it only because the BBC gave more money per episode to variety shows versus straight-up comedy. It seems like this is what happened: no one would go see what this actually is, so it's couched as a comedy special for advertizing purposes. But then she had to try to include jokes, and they're bolted onto the side rather than an integral part.

Note to future self: if the content you are about to watch is referred to as "important", "vital", and "game-changing", but not the primary adjective you associate with that genre, e.g. "funny", steer clear.

This is a good rule.