Caostotale said:
I loved The Simpsons growing up in the 1990s and enjoyed Family Guy a bit during college in the 00s (I remember having to watch it on bootleg VHS tapes while it was cancelled), but can't be alone in thinking that, at this point, both shows (as well as other animated ones like South Park, Futurama, etc...) could really stand to hang it up, lest we go deeper into the already-shitty culturally-cannibalistic habit of having entire generations of young people growing up completely bombarded by their parents' and grandparents' cultural icons and lacking much of anything that can be called their own.
Well, as much as people tend to deny this, it's a big part of why Generation X and Y are the "lost generations". Basically a failure to address the problems inherent in the Baby Boom after World War II combined with innovations in technology leading towards longer life spans, largely meant that society was going to endure a lot of damage. Basically the idea is that one generation of people gets old and the next generation of people moves up to take their place in society. That didn't happen on a large scale due to Baby Boomers remaining active for so long and able to do their jobs even as their children reached adulthood. This is a big part of why all the "good" jobs are taken and why even college degrees are increasingly worthless, basically you can't compete with some guy with 10-20 years of experience who is still going strong. What's more Boomers have a tendency to want to hire other Boomers, leading to a literal "old boys network" and a sort of glass ceiling when it comes to anything above lower-middle management in a lot of places. Not to mention the Boomers have shown a willingness to lay people off and take losses rather than adapt and bring in those from the younger generations. A lot has been written about this, but it's a big part of why we have an economic recession, in part fueled by all the 30-40 somethings that can't find *decent* jobs, and the huge numbers of adult "man children" who live at home because they literally have no choice. As Gen X started to finally get it's belated foot in the door to some extent, Gen Y arrived, the other "Lost Generation" and are now hitting the same kinds of problems. Although Gen Y is predicted to eventually have a greater impact due to still being fairly young when the Boomers finally die out.
On a pop culture level the thing to understand is that the Boomers have had all the money, so of course businesses have been directed at them. Gen X is a latecomer but your starting to finally see some middle-aged Gen Xers with money becoming a societal force, and that's why you have the 80s and 90s nostalgia boom. Right now the parents and grandparents are the ones that are profitable to deal with, the stuff directed at Gen Y isn't that profitable yet because to be blunt Gen Y is pathetic in pretty much every way that matters on this level. Of course with time that will change, and odds are Gen Y will not get slammed as hard as Gen X did.
If you ever wondered why stuff from the 1990s was so relatively morbid, and "extreme", with lots of anti-heroes, and the overall message oftentimes coming down to nothing mattering no matter what you do or give up, that's because it was the voice of a skipped generation and it mirrored what was known to be happening in society. The irony is that when you look at say the old 1990s comics and stuff and the scorn with which many people view them, that's pretty much how the characters themselves felt they would be viewed, anti-heroes doing things to hold down the fort, their only victory being that nothing changes, and the hope is that someday, someone else will make things better. In comparison stuff largely aimed at "Generation Y" tends to be a bit more upbeat as is the generation because there is at least a light at the end of the tunnel.
I could go into politics and other aspects of everything, and how a lot of other things fit together, but it's increasingly off topic. The bottom line is that the tail end of Gen Y will probably start to see more references and stuff flat out directed at them (without it being a "hipster production") without being quite as old overall, probably sometime around 2020. It's possible Gen Y will be skipped entirely as well, but less likely by forecasts.
The biggest questions here of course are going to be whether the new generations are able to fix the damage done by the Baby Boomers, adjust society to prevent further lost generations (very, very, difficult with modern lifespans), and similar things. One of the big concerns right now is that the new generations will largely be conditioned into a new generation of Boomers... while not the best way of stating it, this is what a lot of politics and media battles do come down to. The Boomers want to pass on their ideals despite the damage, figuring it will work out in the end, a lot of those victimized by that generation albeit not directly see a society in need of repair.