No, he was not [great - ] he was typical of a pop culture humorist You're presenting "great" and "pop cultural humorist" as mutually exclusive terms. It

No, he was not [great - ] he was typical of a pop culture humorist You're presenting "great" and "pop cultural humorist" as mutually exclusive terms. It feels fundamentally incorrect to compare him to writers producing conspicuously deeper and denser stuff. If you judge him by standards and goals to which he never aspired then I'd agree he comes up awfully short. Reminds me of the old days when people derided the Beatles and other rock and roll acts because they didn't meet the standards of classical music. Or when people derided e.g. Shigeru Miyamoto because video games didn't measure up to the narrative achievements seen in the best movies. It's true: The Godfather and Super Mario Brothers are both things that appear on your television screen. Just like Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy and Lolita and Finnegan's Wake are all books. Not sure they're trying to be the same thing, though.