This is another rant on meta humor but it seriously ruins things for me as so often there will be scene where something silly or wacky happens and all the characters just go "wow guys wasn't that so wacky and random" and that's all, that's the entire scene because we need to pad it out somehow. I like campy media with silly premises that don't take themselves too seriously but I also love it when they have a batshit insane plot that they take 100% seriously and that's the entire joke and while those types of things can go into the "so bad it's good" category, it's still several times funnier than the raw unfiltered sewage that is bad meta "humour"
Meta humor like this not only breaks my immersion completely and is the antithesis of a good story (that is, the writers wanting you to immerse you in a world different from yours It's not funny, and it just drags the quality of a work down.
An example I'll give is High On Life where every time anything happens Justin I-beat-women-and-think-writing-natural-dialog-involves-every-character-having-a-speech-impediment Roiland's gun or guns just say "OH MY GOD OH WOW HOLY SHIT OH FUCK CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT'S HAPPENING OH MY FUCKING GOD WOW YOU'RE JUST KILLING THEM ALL YOU'RE BATSHIT CRAZY HOLY FUCK ISN'T THE SITUATION WE ARE IN SO INSANE OH MY GOD" and that's the entire joke and it's supplemented by excessive swearing, and swearing is can be a comedic tool that can be used to make a joke or a situation funnier but when you combine cringy meta humor + excessive swearing, not only is the meta humor not funny, but the swearing just feels like white noise that doesn't add to the joke and excessive swearing on it's own isn't funny, it's fucking annoying.
TL;DR: Whedon did irreparable damage to mainstream comedy
Meta humor like this not only breaks my immersion completely and is the antithesis of a good story (that is, the writers wanting you to immerse you in a world different from yours It's not funny, and it just drags the quality of a work down.
An example I'll give is High On Life where every time anything happens Justin I-beat-women-and-think-writing-natural-dialog-involves-every-character-having-a-speech-impediment Roiland's gun or guns just say "OH MY GOD OH WOW HOLY SHIT OH FUCK CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT'S HAPPENING OH MY FUCKING GOD WOW YOU'RE JUST KILLING THEM ALL YOU'RE BATSHIT CRAZY HOLY FUCK ISN'T THE SITUATION WE ARE IN SO INSANE OH MY GOD" and that's the entire joke and it's supplemented by excessive swearing, and swearing is can be a comedic tool that can be used to make a joke or a situation funnier but when you combine cringy meta humor + excessive swearing, not only is the meta humor not funny, but the swearing just feels like white noise that doesn't add to the joke and excessive swearing on it's own isn't funny, it's fucking annoying.
TL;DR: Whedon did irreparable damage to mainstream comedy