As Seinfeld was satirizing in his SNL appearance, there used to be a lot more comedy clubs across the states, often known for their brick backgrounds. Bill Hicks has also joked about this, or at least his reference to the Chuckle Hut makes me think he's got that contempt as well. Of course, the growth in the market didn't necessarily mean a growth in quality, and so there must have been an excess of stand-ups who not only never went anywhere, but offered hackneyed and obvious observations on life. Even when Comedy Central was doing clips of stand-ups around its inception, I don't remember any Airplane Food jokes. My guess is that the sort of people who made them were never all that funny, and it became comic code for someone who blew. It's a non-offensive sort of take off point that people are likely to agree with, but because it's such a cliche (and has been for quite some time), it's a non-starter, and something geared towards getting the audience on your side.
