# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/101 "2026-04-16T14:13:38Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > "Even [Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder] could see that! > > I don’t know how well known either of those might be to under-40s, and I don’t know of a contemporary well-known blind person. He may not have had any hits lately, but Stevie Wonder is still a contemporary blind person. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/102 "2026-04-16T14:17:00Z")
FWIW: _ **Poles in Milwaukee Started Jokes** _ _In Milwaukee for 30 years a feud has been going on between north side and south side Polacks. That is where the Polack jokes started. I was raised as a north side Polack._ _In 1944 when we visited Milwaukee, Polack jokes were rampant. No one took offense._ _This July, one of my sons and his family visited me. We had the neighborhood teenagers in when my wife and son started on Polish jokes._ _Maybe, just maybe, we were responsible for bringing some so-called offensive jokes to Omaha. If so, we are truly sorry._ _Mrs. Arthur J. Ackeret._ –Evening World Herald, Oct. 11, 1965, Omaha NE ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/103 "2026-04-16T14:39:28Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > All us kids repeated them, but I don’t think any of us thought for a minute that Polish people were any different from anyone else. Sad to say, we (me, at least) did. You see there were three primary ethnic group in central Wisconsin: Germans (the best, and they’d let you know it! Mostly by telling polack jokes.), Poles (see: Germans), and the rest of us. It was good to not be the butt of jokes all the time when you are 8. I probably thought Poles were dumb. It’s easy to be indoctrinated at a young age. I even told polack jokes. I grew out of it. Fast forward 40 years, we get a new engineer here, from Wisconsin, name ends in “ski”. He says, “no polish jokes!” I immediately go, “These two polacks went ice fishing…” (no further)\*. We hit it right off! > [@msmith537](#): > > I never really understood WHY Polish jokes were popular They were funny. What did we know at that age from causing emotional pain and micro aggression. \*the joke is funny. “Two guys” is funny enough without the ethnic putdown, but I sometimes tell it “Two guys, in Wisconsin, they’d be Poles, to Poles, they’d be two Minnesota Norwegian bachelor farmers \*\*, in Minnesota, they’d be two Canadians, in Canada, they’d be two French Canadians…anyway they go ice fishing…” \*\*named, of course, Sven and Ollie ---
**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, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/104 "2026-04-16T14:39:40Z")
A variation: A Jewish man and a Chinese man are talking about history. The Chinese man says, “My people have been around for 4000 years”. The Jewish man says, “Oh yeah? Well my people have been around for 5000 years”. The Chinese man says, “Really? What did you eat for the first thousand years”. It refers to the stereotype of Jewish people liking Chinese food. A Jewish girl I dated claimed it was because most restaurants are closed on Christmas (and other Christian holidays) but most Chinese restaurants are open, because the owners are often not Christian. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/105 "2026-04-16T14:57:07Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > > [@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. The original sense of the verb _glaze_ is to literally “add glass to something”. As in, put a piece of glass in the window. And the original sense of the word _window_ is literally a “wind eye”. Which meant that once you’ve put glass in the window, it’s not actually a window any more, but a transparent wall. (Originally a _waw_, since a _wall_ was a fortification, not the side of a building. Prescriptivists have been losing their fights for a long time.) The common connotations of these words have changed significantly… ---
**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, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/106 "2026-04-16T15:05:54Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > You see there were three primary ethnic group in central Wisconsin: Germans (the best, and they’d let you know it! Mostly by telling polack jokes.), Poles (see: Germans), and the rest of us. It was good to not be the butt of jokes all the time when you are 8. I probably thought Poles were dumb. It’s easy to be indoctrinated at a young age. I even told polack jokes. I grew out of it. And in Green Bay, there were (still are) a whole lot of Belgians, to the point that, when I was a kid, “Polish jokes” were usually reskinned as “Belgian jokes.” ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/107 "2026-04-16T15:06:09Z")
We had a recent spate of burglaries in our county, dude caught on various Ring cameras. He was doing it _in the nude_. Which led to predictable jokes about the police lineup when they catch him (“Number four, step forward and drop trou!”); a Jewish friend added, “Did he look Jewish?” to the mix. Cops did catch the guy, no word on whether a lineup was necessary! I collect technologically obsolete jokes. Those are jokes that are completely un-funny nowadays because they make no sense any more due to technology changes. They are NOT topical like most of the jokes here, i.e.., not based on current events/celebrities. One: woman tells the milkman, “I’m supposed to take a milk bath, so I need ten gallons tomorrow.” “Pasteurized?” “No, just up to my chin.” (Milkman? Milk bath?? Pasteurization optional??? OK, that last one is sorta coming back with the “raw milk” craze, but still) Another: phone rings, small child answers. “Is your daddy home?” “No.” “Well, do you know how to write?” “Yes.” “Then can you take a message?” “OK.” “Thanks. Please tell him to call Mr. Jones at CApital 5-1234.” (Small child home alone? No answering machine/voicemail?? Kid answers phone??? And most of all, of course, the word-based NX in the NXX???) Long silence, then: “I don’t know how to make a capital five!” One more: Family eating dinner, phone rings, maid answers, listens, says “Sure is!” and hangs up. This repeats twice more. Finally the master of the house asks WTF; she says, “Some joker keeps calling and telling me ‘Long distance from New York’!” (Family eating dinner together? Maid?? Long distance being a big deal???) ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/108 "2026-04-16T15:09:58Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > in Canada, they’d be two French Canadians More likely Newfies, no? Though making fun of Quebecois is always legit (in the other nine provinces…ok, maybe not so much in New Brunswick). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/109 "2026-04-16T15:11:52Z")
nm / duplicate post ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/110 "2026-04-16T15:14:12Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > most restaurants are closed on Christmas (and other Christian holidays) but most Chinese restaurants are open Fa ra ra ra ra.\* It’s a beautiful duck. \*yes, another ethnic based putdown. Come on, despite the name, you just _know_ Ralphie’s family were Polish. 😉 ---
**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, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/111 "2026-04-16T15:22:00Z")
Still with phones … I’m sure there were plenty of party line jokes back when everyone knew what a party line was. Then, in the 900 number era just before the www took off, “party line” took on a whole new meaning. 😈 Now? Just baffled looks all around. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/112 "2026-04-16T15:27:56Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, Batman! > > (Playground riddles don’t work so well if they’re written down) What did the Pink Panther say when his mom’s sister passed away? Dead aunt, dead aunt, dead aunt dead aunt dead aunt, dead aunt dead auuunnnnnnt, wah wah wah wah wah. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/113 "2026-04-16T15:30:24Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > It refers to the stereotype of Jewish people liking Chinese food. A Jewish girl I dated claimed it was because most restaurants are closed on Christmas (and other Christian holidays) but most Chinese restaurants are open, because the owners are often not Christian. Also, dairy is uncommon in Chinese food, so the restrictions against milk + meat won’t be an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/114 "2026-04-16T15:30:37Z")
Subject: phones, lightning storms, and silly farmers Back in the day when I was a Wisconsin agriculturist, we used to subscribe to the Wisconsin Agriculturist. There was a comic strip every issue about a farm family. One I still remember was that they were getting a phone call in a lightning storm, and the wife tells the husband to hold a toothpick to protect him from a lightning strike on the phone lines (an actual risk, not actual remedy!). To this day I don’t know what was funny. Were we supposed to laugh at the naive wife and her fold remedies? Ok, marginally funny. Or we were supposed to take it as actual advice to follow? Not funny. And now while the farmers may still have landlines, they all have cell phones. No one is talking during a lightning storm. They’re all out filming it with their cell phones. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tCOkI_N4j24/maxresdefault.jpg "Watch: Dramatic Moment Lightning Strikes Tree In Wisconsin, Causing Explosion") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCOkI_N4j24) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/115 "2026-04-16T15:32:03Z")
Where does the Lone Ranger take his garbage? To da dump, to da dump, to da dump dump dump… ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/116 "2026-04-16T15:44:47Z")
In between the time that Kareem Abdul Jabbar rose to fame with the Lakers, appeared as co-pilot Roger Murdock in _Airplane!_, and subsequently retired, there has been a football player - also named Karim Abdul Jabbar - who played college ball for UCLA (much like the other Kareem, although in a different sport), rose to prominence playing for Miami, got traded, and has _also_ since retired! It’s been over 40 years, but we still laugh and joke about [Kareem’s Scene in _Airplane!_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSi6iF9kVBs). In fact, at our first Christmas, my wife and I each unknowingly bought the other a copy of _Airplane_ on DVD! We’re also huge _Jeopardy!_ fans, so we laughed extra-hard when Kareem flubbed the question about his own role in _Airplane!_ on _Celebrity Jeopardy_. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/117 "2026-04-16T16:00:34Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Oh, also the Hare Krishnas handing out flowers in the airport lobby at the beginning of the movie. They’re not in airports anymore, but I do occasionally encounter groups of Krishnas doing the dance-and-chant thing in the street. They’ve never offered me a flower but sometimes I get invited to a vegan meal (which I have not taken them up on). But both their ubiquity and usefulness as joke fodder has certainly long faded. > [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I guess you probably see more windows than the average guy…. But fewer than George Formby (speaking of old jokes that don’t work anymore). > [@phs3](#): > > One: woman tells the milkman, “I’m supposed to take a milk bath, so I need ten gallons tomorrow.” “Pasteurized?” “No, just up to my chin.” As immortalized in the Benny Hill song “Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West”. Of course, everything Benny Hill-related is also obsolete so maybe not so immortalized. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/118 "2026-04-16T16:18:12Z")
I rewatched _Airplane!_ recently because ZAZ released a book on the making of the movie and talking about where all the gags came from. (titled, inevitably, [Surely You Can’t Be Serious](https://www.amazon.com/Surely-You-Cant-Be-Serious/dp/1250289319). Not only were many of them about current events, the male cast was picked mostly because they were so familiar in dramatic television series, so the contrast was greater. As with Barbara Billingsley, all that surprise is lost today. If you didn’t know - and I didn’t - the jive scene was written by the two actors who played the roles. Monty Python is also filled with references to current events and people; worse, from American perspectives, British events and people. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/119 "2026-04-16T16:36:05Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > at our first Christmas, my wife and I each unknowingly bought the other a copy of _Airplane_ on DVD! That’s so “Gift of the Magi.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293/120 "2026-04-16T16:37:34Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > In 1944 when we visited Milwaukee, Polack jokes were rampant. No one took offense. I always note when people make remarks like this. When they say _“people didn’t used to get offended by those jokes”_ what they really mean is _“people who were the subjects of those jokes used to be afraid to express any offense.”_ If a woman expressed offense at a joke about women, she’d get slapped. If a gay man expressed offense at a joke about homosexuality, he’d get beaten up. If a black person expressed offense at a joke about black people, he’d get arrested and maybe lynched. That’s the reality of the “good old days”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-dont-work-anymore-on-a-contemporary-younger-crowd/1029293.md?page=7)