Mean-spirited and cruel.

Someone please explain this criticism to me. Are people referring to the way the characters treat each other? If so, why is that a valid criticism? Have people not been watching comedy television for the last 10-15 years?

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Trailer Park Boys, The Office (UK), Extras (hell, anything involving Ricky Gervais). All grounded in "mean-spirited and cruel" humor. You could call Seinfeld and the Simpsons mean natured in spirit. Hell, even a handful of episodes from The Twilight Zone are extremely cruel but humorous in their own ironic way.

But who is this show being mean-spirited toward? The other mean characters of the show? Or are they referring to the non-PC nature of the dialog being too cruel on the viewer? I really do not understand how it is a valid criticism of the show. Always Sunny has an episode that revolves around kidnapping a hispanic family and eventually burning their house down. Completely played for laughs. Sure, reading that out of context does sound mean and cruel, but watching the episode and knowing the characters, it's easy to understand what it is you're laughing at. You're not laughing at the destruction of the house, you're laughing because of the absurdity of the situation caused by how completely delusional, selfish and stupid the characters are.

I guess the difference is the tone in Vice Principals. It's a comedy made not only with the style of a drama but also uses several dramatic elements. You're not expected to laugh at the burning of the house. Maybe at the dialogue or the reactions, but not the act. If it appalled you, then it did what it set out to do. If you laughed, it's because you know the characters quirks and you found them funny to begin with. Now if you don't find it funny, that's a different topic.

I guess the best analogy is this; if you were walking down the street with your goofy buddy and he slipped on some ice and fell down, you'd most likely laugh. However, take the same scenario except instead of a goofy friend, it's your 95 year old grandmother. Not that funny huh?

I really want to hear from the other side on this. Why is "mean-spirited" and "cruel" comedy treated as almost taboo, but yet something like Breaking Bad can play a scene involving blood and guts raining from the ceiling for laughs (not comparing the two at all, just using them as examples of comedy and drama) and yet be praised for it's blending of comedy with the drama?

Do I think the show is mean-spirited and cruel sometimes? Hell yes. But that's what makes comedies like this and all the ones I mentioned above so great. Most people walk around with a filter that keeps them from saying what they really want to or doing what they want to but here, it's everything goes and anything could happen which leads to more creative ways to bring out humor from a place we might not really understand.