I can't help but think you also touched upon a point I've been thinking about recently: the enthusiast. You can dilute a product to appeal to everyone all the

I can't help but think you also touched upon a point I've been thinking about recently: the enthusiast. You can dilute a product to appeal to everyone all the time, but the enthusiasts are the ones who help champion the product to friends and followers. The power of the word of mouth should never be under-estimated. I was listening to a podcast by Zach Lowe where he interviewed one of the writers of Parks and Rec. Zach mentioned that sometimes he'll notice extremely esoteric jokes which would fly over the majority of the audience. And the writer responded those are what they call the 1% jokes. Those jokes absolutely kill it with people who recognize it, and probably also help inspire the writing staff who are likely inspired by the fact that they can produce work that they themselves find really funny.