# Jokes that, nowadays, need explaining **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comedian-jokes\ **Created:** [September 25, 2020, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466 "2020-09-25T02:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/222 "2020-10-07T11:38:48Z")
don’t make the connection now - but go back to a time when no one not from a border state was familiar with Mex/Tex-Mex food, and a restaurant opening and handing off translation of its menu to some one not particularly fluent in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/223 "2020-10-07T12:08:19Z")
For further examples, it does not have to be burritos or Spanish. How about “farfalle” and “mostaccioli”? Or (back to French…) tablier de sapeur? I do suspect the tropes specifically about French restaurants have to do with (especially American) “cuisine classique” restaurants and social class clashes. But, who knows, there may be some old jokes about alien Italian food or Chinese food or Mexican food that would need to be explained nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/224 "2020-10-07T12:13:28Z")
How many people have heard of Billie Sol Estes (1925-2013)? He was involved in a fraud/scandal involving agricultural ammonia in Texas in the early 60’s. Allan Sherman had one of his humorous songs about him (from “My Son the Celebrity” - 1963) based on the song “Billy Boy”. The audience is laughing then - they wouldn’t have a clue of who/what he was singing about today. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9oo-5iOIc-0/hqdefault.jpg "Allan Sherman's "Billy Sol" from My Son, The Celebrity") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oo-5iOIc-0) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/225 "2020-10-07T12:23:29Z")
Yeah. I feel like I have to footnote Tom Lehrer songs too. “Massachusetts has three senators,” etc. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/226 "2020-10-07T12:28:34Z")
I have a tattoo near my left armpit (ouch). Back when I got it in ‘98, I’d tell people I got a tattoo honoring Monica Lewinsky. Then I’d lift my arm and show them. Most people laughed. Nowadays when I show someone the tattoo, a bird, specifically a swallow, I don’t mention Ms Lewinsky. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/227 "2020-10-07T12:45:04Z")
Speaking of Tom Lehrer, I’d always heard a bunch of praise for his song “New Math.” I was rather bemused, when I finally listened to it, to discover that the “new” method that he seems to find so confusing is just Borrowing, which is the way I was taught to do subtraction. Meanwhile, his description of “the way we’ve always done it” sounds like utter gibberish to me. I was educated in “the New Math,” so it’s what I find natural. I would definitely need an explanation of the way that Tom Lehrer was taught to subtract. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/228 "2020-10-07T12:57:17Z")
Here’s a bit of explanation of “the old method” [Carry (arithmetic) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_(arithmetic)) (it amounts to the same thing of course, but was apparently taught as a method without explanation) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/229 "2020-10-07T13:08:57Z")
There were so many jokes about New Math. And cartoons, including a handful of Peanuts strips. I still remember Sally crying “How much is two and two?” [https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/schulz.jpg](https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/schulz.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/230 "2020-10-07T15:21:57Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Speaking of Tom Lehrer, I’d always heard a bunch of praise for his song “New Math.” I was rather bemused, when I finally listened to it, to discover that the “new” method that he seems to find so confusing is just Borrowing, which is the way I was taught to do subtraction. Meanwhile, his description of “the way we’ve always done it” sounds like utter gibberish to me. > > I was educated in “the New Math,” so it’s what I find natural. I would definitely need an explanation of the way that Tom Lehrer was taught to subtract. Yes! It’s a central part of my response to people complaining about Common Core math. I sympathize with them and offer to play them a song that mocks the newfangled way we teach kids math. Then I reveal that the song is 55 years old and describes the way they grew up learning math. The fact that we’re learning new ways to explain concepts to children, and we haven’t stopped trying to improve, is a feature, not a bug, of educational policy. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/231 "2020-10-07T16:50:27Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > How about “farfalle” and “mostaccioli”? How about pasta “whore’s style” (puttanesca) or “Brother Devil” style (Fra Diavolo)? ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/232 "2020-10-07T22:52:38Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > It required explaining that in my dad’s memory “pasta” and “spaghetti” were considered weird exotic foods in the uk rather than boring unimaginative staples. The April Fool’s joke one year: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tVo_wkxH9dU/maxresdefault.jpg "BBC: Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino | Switzerland Tourism") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU) > [@](#): > > At the time, 7 million of the 15.8 million homes (about 44%) in Britain had television receivers.[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax#cite_note-3) Pasta was not an everyday food in 1950s Britain, and it was known mainly from tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce and considered by many to be an exotic delicacy.[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax#cite_note-on_this_day-4) An estimated eight million people watched the programme on 1 April 1957, and hundreds phoned in the following day to question the authenticity of the story or ask for more information about spaghetti cultivation and how they could grow their own spaghetti trees; the BBC told them to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best”.[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax#cite_note-5) [Wikipedia source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax) ---
**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:** [October 7, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/233 "2020-10-07T23:08:29Z")
It doesn’t have to be an unfamiliar product to fool morons. > **[20 years later and people still think marshmallows grow on trees](https://www.wcnc.com/article/entertainment/20-years-later-and-people-still-think-marshmallows-grow-on-trees/275-218726d6-0f2b-4ab7-973f-8b5c7c7c7d04)** > > Even though the weather this season has been pretty crazy in the Carolina's, our First Warn Forecaster Larry Sprinkle said the marshmallow crop is doing just fine. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/234 "2020-10-07T23:24:20Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > How about pasta “whore’s style” (puttanesca) or “Brother Devil” style (Fra Diavolo)? For dessert I’ll have some [nun’s farts](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_de_nonne) and [goat turds](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crottin_de_Chavignol). ---
**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:** [October 8, 2020, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/235 "2020-10-08T02:09:41Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > For dessert I’ll have some [nun’s farts](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_de_nonne) and [goat turds](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crottin_de_Chavignol). Don’t forget the [Spotted Dick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick). ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/236 "2020-10-09T11:47:16Z")
I watched an episode of All in the Family last night. The joke was about where they were changing giving phone numbers with the telephone exchange name to three numbers (like Beachwood 4 is 234). The funny part was when she realized that the two numbers were the same. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/237 "2020-10-09T15:22:07Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > The April Fool’s joke one year: Yeah that was definitely part of folk law in the UK when I grew up, but until I heard that song I didn’t realize that the reason that April Fools worked is at the time spaghetti was a weird exotic food in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/238 "2020-10-09T17:59:41Z")
Explain, please? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/239 "2020-10-09T18:10:20Z")
Just the opposite. MSG doesnt have the effects it has been maligned for . Proven by double blind, etc. It doesnt cause headaches or migraines, etc- except by psychosomatic methods. (You can bring on a migraine by thinking you should have one!) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/240 "2020-10-09T18:21:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Explain, please? Cologne and Düsseldorf are the two biggest cities at the Rhine and only 50 kilometers apart. There has been a local rivalry for hundreds of years between the two. Now Kölsch is the native brew of Cologne (Köln in German) and is almost exclusively served in Cologne bars and pubs, whereas Alt is the Düsseldorf native brew with a similar status there. You just won’t find pubs in Düsseldorf that serve Kölsch as well as no Cologne pub that serves Alt, and if you make such an order, the bartender or server will automatically assume that you want to wind him up. It’s almost a kind of taboo, at least a VERY big faux pas. Different brews are often regional in Germany, and there are more fuck ups of that kind possible (don’t order a Pils in Munich, for example), but ordering ALt in Cologne or Kölsch in Düsseldorf takes the cake. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/241 "2020-10-09T18:24:01Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Yeah that was definitely part of folk law in the UK when I grew up, but until I heard that song I didn’t realize that the reason that April Fools worked is at the time spaghetti was a weird exotic food in the UK. Hell, I still show it most years to my elementary students, and then ask them what they think, and get kids saying, “I didn’t realize you could grow spaghetti on trees!” It works because we’re super conditioned to trust the authority of boring British man voiceovers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=13)