Offensive Is Funny

With lyrics like, "all these guys unzip their flys for porn, porn, porn" and "the Jews have all the money and the whites have all the power. And I'm always in taxi-cab with driver who no shower!", you would think that theatergoers would find "Avenue Q" extremely offensive and disgusting, but instead people find it absolutely hilarious. The play is done with actors and puppets.

An interesting thing about the presentation of the show is that you can see the
puppeteers at all times. You could easily watch this show twice once
watching the puppets, and once watching the puppeteers who are easily as
animated as the "actors" they control.

It's very interesting because even though they are puppets, as a audience member you watch them and connect with them as if they were real.
One reason I think everyone really enjoys this play is because they connect with it. Everyone finds that certain "actor"/puppet to feel for and everyone understands and connects with the different topics and songs. Many of the things discussed in "Avenue Q" are topics that people agree with 100% but it's "not right" to talk about it in public.
The funny thing is, is that the theatergoer can see that this play is based on "Sesame Street", but instead of centering it around children it's for adults that can handle topics involving racism, sex, porn, etc.

Subtly but essentially, Moore has transformed a "Sesame Street" episode
self-consciously seen through a glass darkly, into more of the genuine article.
Rather than receive a watering-down, the show is stronger for his labors. Both
humans and puppets are so ingenuous, so wide-eyed and naive in an authentically
Children's Television Workshop way, that all the R-rated material becomes
paralyzingly funny, and the dicier the topic the funnier it gets: the sex
between needy Princeton and woeful Kate Monster (Kelli Sawyer) is pushed to the
limit, but the human actors' who-me? openness renders it utterly
unobjectionable.