# Jokes that don't work anymore (on a contemporary, younger crowd) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** comedian-jokes\ **Created:** [April 15, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293 "2026-04-15T17:38:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/61 "2026-04-15T23:44:46Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > And that’s another thing! What’s the deal with all these people going for weeks (months?) to the Adirondacks? It’s the driving scenario in _Dirty Dancing_, but I, a Wisconsinite, just don’t get it. Why was is such A Thing? Do they still do it? It was cooler outside the city, especially before air conditioning was common. People who could afford it sent [Mom](https://www.nytimes.com/1950/08/16/archives/topics-of-the-times-summer-bachelor-thing.html#:~:text=Now%20it%20is%20August%2C%20and,fireplace%20he%20forgets%20to%20clean.) and the [kids](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1981/07/16/summer-bachelors/b8e6b2ad-5c6f-40f1-b5b9-e50a2812ccba/) to their beach house, their cabin in the mountains or to a resort in the Catskills while Dad stayed in the city and worked all week, joing the rest of the family on Friday nights. It wasn’t exclusively a Jewish thing - but there were always Jewish resorts and non-Jewish ones and few people crossed over. Jewish families didn’t stay at the Italian or Irsih resorts because they wanted a kosher diet - and non-Jews generally didn’t stay at the Jewish resorts because they _didn’t_ want a kosher diet. Do they still do it? The beach house or mountain cabins, yes . But that type of resort in the Catskills no longer really exists. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/62 "2026-04-15T23:46:20Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > What’s the deal with all these people going for weeks (months?) to the Adirondacks? It’s the driving scenario in _Dirty Dancing_, but I, a Wisconsinite, just don’t get it. The Wisconsin equivalent was (still is, in part) going “upnort” (up north) to either your family’s (or friends’) cabin up on a lake, or to a resort, either in Door County or in the Wisconsin north woods. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/63 "2026-04-16T00:15:35Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I suppose the whole _oeuvre_ of Borscht Belt stand-up comics would be near incomprehensible to modern audiences, whether delivered as prose or in song. A shame because it means I can’t ever use a joke I wrote because those darn “kidz these dayz” wouldn’t know the reference. **“I just flew in from New York… and boy, is that joke tired.”** ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/64 "2026-04-16T00:23:51Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Really, all the disco related gags really date that movie. The whole flashback sequence in the bar where Ted and Elaine first meet, which is a parody of _Saturday Night Fever_, would likely be lost on younger people today, ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/65 "2026-04-16T00:29:38Z")
Chuck Norris jokes leaving the stage in 3… 2…1… ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/66 "2026-04-16T00:31:28Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Camp Grenada is timeless, as witness my famous thread about it some years ago. Timeless? YGBSM. Writing a letter home? Calling your parents “Mother” & “Father”? The larger theme: “Im scared, this is awful, gee, now I’m having massive fun!” is, as you say, eternal. IMO _all_ of the bits from which Sherman assembles that theme are inaccessibly ancient, and/or NYC upper-class Jewish specific. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/67 "2026-04-16T00:57:45Z")
No youngster would get the joke I made up in the 1990s, after a famous boxing bout: What kind of drink should you never offer Leon Spinks? Aperitif. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/68 "2026-04-16T01:08:20Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I can find jokes made about them, but they never seemed to sweep the country. Maybe _All in the Family_ did in fact start the craze, using Poland as a made-up target for Archie. No, Polack jokes became huge in the mid-1960s. My dad brought home a paperback book of “Polack” jokes called “It’s Fun to be Polack” published in 1965, many years before All in the Family (1971). ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/69 "2026-04-16T01:08:27Z")
Disaster jokes, being in poor taste to begin with, always have an extremely short shelf life. (After the Challenger explosion) What does NASA stand for? Need Another Seven Astronauts ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/70 "2026-04-16T01:10:01Z")
Much of the Loony Tunes humor is missed by people under 80. And in the writings of Lewis Carroll by people under 140 (and not English). ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/71 "2026-04-16T01:10:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Assuming you mean what I think you mean, we usually call that substance “caulk”. If I heard “window glazing”, I’d assume you meant either the glass itself, or some sort of coating on the glass You’re wrong, though. In the US, window glazing _is_ what you’d assume is caulking. I have no idea why we do it that way, but we do. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/72 "2026-04-16T01:14:17Z")
How did they know Christa McAuliffe had dandruff? They found her Head & Shoulders on the beach. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/73 "2026-04-16T01:17:39Z")
Somewhat similarly: Why didn’t Natalie Wood shower on the boat? She preferred to wash up on shore. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/74 "2026-04-16T01:18:03Z")
Q: How did Jessica Savitch die? A: Trying to interview Natalie Wood. Jessica Savitch was a well-known TV newswoman who drowned when the car she was in went into a canal, not long after actress Natalie Wood drowned falling off a boat. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/75 "2026-04-16T01:30:49Z")
Q: What do you call a Polish guy wearing a $600 hat? A: Your Holiness. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/76 "2026-04-16T01:32:08Z")
Q: What kind of wood doesn’t float? A: Natalie Wood. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/77 "2026-04-16T01:36:55Z")
Non-Clevelanders might not get this one anyway, but, “What did the Pope and Bernie Kosar tell Art Modell?” “Kiss my ring”. (Bernie Kosar was the quarterback for the Browns for many years, and of course we never won a Superbowl. Then Art Modell, the owner, moved the team to Baltimore and renamed them the Ravens, and at about the same time, Kosar transferred to… some other team I can’t remember, that then immediately won the Superbowl). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/78 "2026-04-16T01:45:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > at about the same time, Kosar transferred to… some other team I can’t remember, that then immediately won the Superbowl The Cowboys, in 1993. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/79 "2026-04-16T02:01:08Z")
Also, TIL that yes, white-out still gets used, by people who are still doing handwritten work. OTOH, I think the joke would probably still be lost on younger people, as white-out’s use to correct typing errors is archaic. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/80 "2026-04-16T04:32:23Z")
> [@X.L.Lent](#): > > What’s the difference between Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor? Jackson got > burned by Pepsi and Pryor got burned by coke. (Jackson’s hair caught fire while > filming a Pepsi commercial and about the same time Pryor got badly burned while > freebasing cocaine.) The one I remember - I don’t recall exactly how it went - involved Jackson and Pryor being spokesmen for the Ignited Negro College Fund, whose motto is “the mind is a terrible thing to baste.” Would the UNCF and its old motto be recognized by youngsters today? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293.md?page=5)