Zach Weiner, author of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, my favorite *funny* webcomic of all time, on the rise of geek humor:

The less obvious thing is this: we’re all very in tune with machines now in a way I think the last generation wasn’t. For example, when one of my parents doesn’t know something (like, say you pass a statue in the park, but don’t know the person it portrays) they’re okay with being resigned to not knowing. I just pick up my phone and look up wikipedia. I, and many others, use sites like wikipedia, google, and wolframalpha so much that they become like working knowledge. So, for comedians, this opens up possibilities. I can make a joke knowing full well many people will have to look it up. This is okay (within reason) because information is so available.

http://blogs.forbes.com/jasonoberholtzer/2011/05/02/bringing-a-webcomic-to-the-page-a-chat-with-zach-weiner/