Best thing I learned this week (from Sarah Silverman): Don't mock people you don't love. It doesn't work, it's not funny.
What follows from that is that you better love a whole bunch of people if you want to make a career as a humorist or even if you just want to be funny.
@tool_man this came up in the context of roasts. A roast doesn't work if you don't like or even love the target of the roast. I think it applies more generally even though obviously, there is some good satire about people who aren't loved much at all. The difference between satire and simple mockery is that it's fair. For example, mocking Donald Trump's hairstyle works if you're a friend of his because in the end it's a way to show that there are more important things about him that you appreciate. On the other hand, if you obviously dislike everything about him, mocking his hairstyle comes off as mean and unfair because it's not something that should matter.
@mjambon Gotcha, that makes sense.
@mjambon What about low-grade heckling?
One of the joys of the internet is the MST3K-like amusement at the nonsense going on around us.