# 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:** 15
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/282 "2020-10-10T23:05:28Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > you sockdologizing old man-trap It’s witty, at least, even today. The “American Cousin” is a bit of a rube, except he’s the only true gentleman, and the only voice of wisdom, in the play. It’s rather a sweet play (I’ve read it, never seen it performed, but I’d love to!) ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/283 "2020-10-11T00:17:49Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > But quite possibly not at chain places like Domino’s or Papa Johns or the like. I don’t know – I’ve never been in (or ordered from) one. I checked upthread, in their online ordering menu Domino’s doesn’t offer them, but Papa John’s does. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/284 "2020-10-11T06:05:58Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > At the time I didn’t understand why the characters would act like oregano was something brand new, but I later learned that oregano was pretty much unknown in America before WWII. So I would assume there was a period immediately after the war where it was considered a brand new, exotic ingredient, but I also assume that period was over by the 1960s and oregano was commonplace by then I seem to recall a common joke, in various media, where somebody would sniff or taste something that somebody else was cooking, and they’d offer the suggestion, “Needs more oregano.” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/285 "2020-10-11T06:46:29Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > **Emma:** Oscar, I have known Ukrainians, I have worked with Ukrainians. And you, sir, are no Ukrainian. Rush did a short, comedic film to introduce a song in concert a number of years back. Geddy Lee played Gershon, proprietor of Gershon’s House of Sausage. Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart played his customers, “Slobovich” and “O’Malley”, respectively. After Slobovich makes a claim that he is a genius, Gershon replies, “To me, you’re a genius. To O’Malley, you’re a genius. But to a genius, you’re no genius”. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/286 "2020-10-11T21:20:55Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Here’s a joke I keep seeing from the 90’s that needs explanation. A lot of sitcoms from the early 90’s made jokes about Connie Chung, a CNN reporter of the time, my two examples are in The Simpsons Homer buys a Connie Chung swimsuit calendar, and in Full House one of Michelle’s schoolmates claims Connie Chung is his Aunt. There was also a parody of Ice Ice Baby called Rice Rice Baby which had a line, ‘My dinner is cooking like Connie Chung’ [https://youtu.be/mC4jkyg6DzA](https://youtu.be/mC4jkyg6DzA) And it also has the hungry again in an hour line ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/287 "2020-10-11T21:51:36Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I seem to recall a cartoon (might have been a New Yorker cartoon, but if not, it was similar to New Yorker cartoons), which took place in a French restaurant. The waiter politely informs the diner that, “I appreciate you trying to order in French, sir, but you have just ordered an oven-baked tractor.” It was a MAD magazine feature. Each strip illustrated men of different age groups experiencing the same situation. In this case, each one had been interacting with the same waiter. The panel you discussed represented the 35-yo man, who was hiding behind his menu in embarrassment. The panel before it had a 20-yo hippie who had asked if the restaurant employees were “exploited migrant workers,” and the panel after that was a chubby 50-yo who had asked for the calorie count of some kind of exotic dessert dish. The 70-yo in the last panel had asked if the poached eggs were digestible. It’s amazing how much useless information I remember. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/288 "2020-10-11T22:09:47Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > It kind of reminds me of the cartoon trope that Limburger cheese was extremely stinky. I’ve had limburger cheese, to me it didn’t smell any worse than any other kind of cheese. Where did the idea come from? Probably mostly due to the fact that they knew that less than one percent of the people who watched the cartoon had ever tasted limburger. My theory is that limburger cheese was used in cartoon pranks, like where the mischief maker stuffs limburger cheese into a hidden part of somebody’s room to make them gag when they entered. Limburger cheese would have been safer and less gross than actual poo, so it became the icon of stink at the time. There was also the running gag of accidentally provoking a skunk into stink-attacking some hapless victim. I don’t that’s used much any more. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/289 "2020-10-11T22:38:15Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > So I would assume there was a period immediately after the war where it was considered a brand new, exotic ingredient, but I also assume that period was over by the 1960s and oregano was commonplace by then. So am I correct in my guess that the joke was that the people in Mayberry were kind of behind the times, and were just now learning about something the rest of America had discovered a decade or two ago? Actually, it’s more like this is a hick town that’s so behind the times, it considers oregano fancy and exotic. Southern cooking didn’t have oregano. The usual cuisine was fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and garden vegetables that were usually boiled. You gotta remember there’s an entire country outside of NYC. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/290 "2020-10-11T22:55:36Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Remember that exchange between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle about JFK? > > People in everyday conversation would later say, “Oh I knew Joe Blow” and someone else would reply, a la Bentsen, “I knew Joe Blow and you, sir, are no Joe Blow.” I know I got the quote wrong but I think people at the time did as well. > > But if you weren’t there in the late 1980s it may not make much sense. Actually, Bentsen was saying he had more in common with JFK than Quayle did. Quayle had just compared himself to JFK, and Bensten hit back with “I knew Jack Kennedy and we were great friends, and you sir, are no Jack Kennedy!” I remember watching that debate, and Bentsten pretty much destroyed Quayle the entire night. A lot of conservatives at the time were wary of supporting Quayle for vice president, and secretly wished for Bentsen instead. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/291 "2020-10-11T23:01:48Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Here’s a joke I keep seeing from the 90’s that needs explanation. A lot of sitcoms from the early 90’s made jokes about Connie Chung, a CNN reporter of the time, my two examples are in The Simpsons Homer buys a Connie Chung swimsuit calendar, and in Full House one of Michelle’s schoolmates claims Connie Chung is his Aunt. > > Why was Connie Chung so funny a reference? Connie Chung was pretty much the hot chick TV reporter of the late seventies and beyond. The implication was that all the other female reporters were jealous of her and considered her a sellout slut. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/292 "2020-10-11T23:05:43Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Connie Chung was pretty much the hot chick TV reporter of the late seventies and beyond. I thought Tritia Toyota was hotter. Would’ve liked to have been stuck in a pagoda with her. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/293 "2020-10-11T23:09:17Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I thought Tritia Toyota was hotter. Would’ve liked to have been stuck in a pagoda with her. Who? (remember, there’s an entire country outside of Los Angeles as well) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/294 "2020-10-11T23:36:54Z")
Hmm. I’m just going to invent a bad joke. I love my new Palm Pilot! In fact, I just became friends with Rick Astley on MySpace! He has a bigger movie collection than Blockbuster and offered to give me one. With one exception. He’s never going to give me _Up_. (Anachronism provided free of charge.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/295 "2020-10-11T23:37:42Z")
Huh. I never thought Bentsen was doing anything other than cutting Quayle down, and not just to size. IIRC, the line was “Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. And you, Senator, are no Jack Kennedy.” ---
**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 11, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/296 "2020-10-11T23:38:04Z")
Sounds like he let you down. ---
**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 11, 2020, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/297 "2020-10-11T23:39:36Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Huh. I never thought Bentsen was doing anything other than cutting Quayle down, and not just to size. > > IIRC, the line was “Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. And you, Senator, are no Jack Kennedy.” It seemed that a planned moment. Quayle was young - so he would be expected to defend himself against the charge of being too young, by comparing himself with a guy who had been President when even younger than Quayle. Bentsen was ready for that one and gave it to him. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/298 "2020-10-11T23:40:07Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > (remember, there’s an entire country outside of Los Angeles as well) Connie Chung and Tritia Toyota were on the local news at the same time, though on different channels. If you’ve not heard of Tritia Toyota, listen to The Dickies. 😉 I think Connie Chung and Tritia Toyota started off the trend of having non-European journalists on TV – which was often parodied on The Family Guy. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/299 "2020-10-11T23:40:24Z")
He knows the rules and so do I. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/300 "2020-10-11T23:43:13Z")
I remember Dan Quayle’s expression when Bentsen said this; he was _pissed_. (And it was no off-the-cuff remark; they suspected that Quayle would make that comparison and Bentsen had the line ready.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/301 "2020-10-11T23:46:56Z")
Right, just the way Mondale was waiting for Reagan to use “There you go again!” in the 1984 debate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=16)