Dice was on the top of his game in 1990. The biggest selling standup comedian of all time. He was so successful that there was very little, if anything, left for him to achieve in comedy. He took a huge gamble on this particular act and unfortunately it didn't pay off and began the downward spiral of his career. No one at the time seemed to understand what he was doing. It's pure genius though. A deliberate bad show; no prepared material, yet he never stumbles. He never falls out of character (though I imagine the line between "Dice" and Andrew Clay Silverstein was pretty blurred at this point) and he never seems at a loss for something to say. His timing is bang on all the time. The interaction with the audience is brilliant. Just treat them all like shit until they leave. I love it!
My wife watches The Big Bang Theory every week. I have to admit though, I don't mind when it's on and have laughed out loud at it more than once. I'm very conflicted about it though because this is obviously a show that's made by geeks and for geeks. When I was growing up, guys like that got beat up. And if I wasn't getting beat up for being one of them, I was beating them up just to disassociate myself from them. Like I said, very conflicting. Still a funny show though.
Hatred is always trendy. It's the one thing that everybody universally loves. Regardless of culture or upbringing, there's no one who doesn't enjoy having something to hate. The trend used to be to hate different races and sexual orientations. That's not "cool" anymore. Now it's cool to hate religion and politics. Everyone's happier when they've got something to be pissed off about.