I wouldn't call that "obvious".

For starters, it's incomplete. Yes, "some" people think humor itself is offensive. I would wager that there have always been some people like that, since humor itself was invented. How does that relate to what happened to Stack Overflow?

To make your answer complete, you have to connect the remaining dots, and there are multiple ways to do that. Thing is, none of those ways are "obvious".

For example, you could posit that the majority of people find humor offensive today, as opposed to 2014, but I don't see any evidence that's even true, much less obvious.

More likely, you're implying that the majority of people who have influence over Stack Overflow's tone consider the humor itself offensive. If that's obvious to you, it sure isn't to me.

It's an opinion and an open-ended discussion topic. I have my opinion, and you apparently have yours.

Are you expecting a link to a scientific study proving it, or what?

I'm not. I was just trying to find out what you're actually trying to say, instead of going against HN "most generous take" policy and assuming it's a political stance ;)

> what you're actually trying to say

.. is what I said. Why can't you just leave it at that?

Most of this thread is humorous, or trying to be. I don't see you answering every other post in it.