Why can't people make fun of others anymore?

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I am all for free speech, even if I do not agree with what is being said. Nothing is worse than censorship

There are always unwritten limits on "free speech" in civil society, and perhaps it is naive to think otherwise.

Try telling your boss that you think he/she is a rude noxious bully
Try telling a cop that he is wasting your time giving you a speeding ticket.
Try going to a gay nightclub wearing a badge that says "gays suck"
Encourage your children to tell their teacher that he is mean, nasty and unfair
Go to a party at a friend's house and openly disparage the host
Go to a Trump rally wearing a "I'm voting Hillary badge"
Apply for a bank loan and lecture the loan officer on the greed of banks
Insult someone who is a intoxicated and waving a gun around
Routinely inform others how ignorant you think they are
Walk around in a public place, holding a sign with some form of overt bigotry/hate speech on it
Try laughing at or correcting a mispronunciation made by a person interviewing you for a job
Be rude wherever you want, whenever you want, because respect for others is a silly idea to gag free speakers.

I hope you wouldn't do any of these things, and you probably wouldn't; most people wouldn't. The consequences of spouting off your right to "free speech" without reflection and respect are not likely to be good.

Glad you noticed that, I added in that one for some relief..

In many cases it isn't the words themselves which are at fault but the context in whch they are used, or perceived to have been used. If a clinical psychologist, after examing a child, declared "He's mentally ret*d" is he being abusive or simply giving a medical diagnosis? Likewise the "N" word is frowned upon as polictically incorrect and yet some black people regularly use the word themselves, NWA even incorporated the word into their band name. Likewise some gay people have "reclaimed" the word queer, while others view it as an insult. A great deal of the time it's not what is said but how it is said that matters.

I was reading the other day about what countries make fun of other countries and it looks like nearly every country makes fun of someone else. Humor or hate? It seems more like hate disguised as humor to me.

I guess all humans really are intolerant and bigoted by nature.

I don't think the OP is encouraging people to make fun of others. His criticism appears to be directed at the "snowflake" mindset, in which one feels the need to be shielded from all views that are potentially offensive or unpleasant.

Making fun of other people can be a form of bullying (though not always) and I have seen cruel examples that have reduced the targets to tears. Slowly, awareness of all forms of bullying is growing (not before time) and this kind of cruelty is no longer automatically viewed as "just having fun". There is also greater awareness of emotional harms generally.

I have also noticed that there is less tolerance for quite nasty "pranks" which were once laughed off as "just practical jokes". Some of those in the past have maimed, paralysed and killed people.

Sensitivity is a nice attribute for people to have, and I avoid people who pride themselves on being "great jokers" at the expense of other people.

I would list a recent penchant for assuming the worst possible motive in everyone as a prime factor for people taking things too seriously. The ball busting that goes on in the kitchens I've worked in, for example, would doubtlessly cause some people to make all sorts of armchair diagnoses about the people I work with, but it's all just part of the culture of the kitchen, and neither intended or taken personally.

To my knowledge, it's always been perfectly acceptable to insult a male peer's family to his face in order to force him to fight you, to the death if necessary, to make you take back your words. It's up to him to be strong and menacing enough to deter you from doing the insulting in the first place.