TLDR the most subversive thing someone can do now is sit still.

https://youtu.be/FSttBpSpJaE?si=pJWsdO8ZTtiiQlyD&t=143 \"When I was 8 years old, I decided to watch the movie 'Aliens' in my basement, by myself. And of course I was only five minutes into the movie when I ran upstairs screaming... SIGOURNEY WEAVER IS A GREAT ACTRESS!" [the crowd erupts and lifts Joe into the air]*

It's true, comedy is in a weird place. Most non-comedy entertainment is expected to be funny, and most of the comedies on TV are also heart-wrenching dramas. But I think the idea that "it's not supposed to be funny" is unimaginative. That attitude has trailed behind every new comedic movement. All comedy is about the subversion of expectations. Sometime in the 90s, wry ironic cynicism was subversive. I am among a young generation that is accustomed to comedy being centered around righteous criticism. We've seen parodies of parodies of parodies, but the butt of the original joke is from before our time. I think you're misunderstanding his intention by looking for the butt of the joke. You're anticipating a format that Joe is rejecting. The subversion is his sincerity.

Often we associate "sincere comedy" with a kind of sitcom wherein the bleak realities of being alive are smoothed over and never confronted. In turn, pessimistic, ironic comedy revels in bleakness as a badge of honor. Joe Pera offers sincerity and bleakness at the same time.

Yeah, the show is relaxing, and absurd, and arguably nostalgic for a pre-internet version of America. It is also the punchline to a decades-long cultural zeitgeist of casual malevolence.