# 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:** 16
**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, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/302 "2020-10-11T23:50:42Z")
In one debate, Reagan said of Mondale, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Which was funny enough that Mondale laughed. (I think this may also have been a prepared line.) ---
**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 11, 2020, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/303 "2020-10-11T23:51:03Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > 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!” No, not quite. Quayle was considered to be young and green, not up to playing with the big boys in politics. He not only was young, but considered to be slow and none-too-bright. He kept comparing his young age (41) to Kennedy’s throughout the campaign, saying that his young age (41) would not be a detriment, because JFK was also young and it wasn’t a detriment for JFK. Everybody expected that he would trot this out at the debate, so Bentsen was prepared with his comeback (implying that JFK may have been young, but he was a far more astute politician than Quayle would ever be at any age). ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/304 "2020-10-12T00:22:41Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Tritia Toyota I’d heard the name hundreds of times on the radio…and never saw it spelled till today! ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/305 "2020-10-12T00:35:56Z")
“In a mock debate with [Dennis Eckart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Eckart), Bentsen used the casual remark “you’re no Jack Kennedy and George Bush is no [Ronald Reagan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan).”[[11]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senator,_you%27re_no_Jack_Kennedy#cite_note-11) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/306 "2020-10-12T00:51:41Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > (remember, there’s an entire country outside of Los Angeles as well) Lies. Fake news. Dissident propaganda. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/307 "2020-10-12T01:22:33Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > “Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap.” > > It loses something over the years, I think. > [@Trinopus](#): > > 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!) It’s not that it used to be funny but isn’t anymore. It’s that it’s only funny in the context of the play. And IMHO it’s not so much funny as emotionally satisfying. It’s where Our Hero tells the sockdologizing old man-trap that he’s onto her nefarious scheme and she won’t be getting away with it. (I’m sure there must be plenty of parallels in modern movies, but I’m not soming up with any.) I was in a production of the play. It was fun. ---
**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 12, 2020, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/308 "2020-10-12T01:33:52Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > 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. 😉 Again, LA =/= universal ---
**Author:** ![ZosterSandstorm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ZosterSandstorm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZosterSandstorm)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/309 "2020-10-12T01:37:27Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > 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. This, of course, is the modern assumption, projected back through generations of “everyone I know voted for Dukakis” media gatekeepers and the sort of insidery horse-race watchers for whom scripted debate “zingers” have meaning. The “joke that needs explanation” part is that Bush absolutely crushed Dukakis in the election, winning 40 states including several that never went Republican again, and blasting through his September poll numbers to an extent that suggested something was seriously wrong with the poll methodology. The three things most people remember about 1988 (the huge impact of Bentsen’s insult, the election being a close call that turned on nonsense incidents like Dukakis in the tank, and the Willie Horton narrative) are all wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/310 "2020-10-12T03:12:02Z")
> [@ZosterSandstorm](#): > > This, of course, is the modern assumption, projected back through generations of “everyone I know voted for Dukakis” media gatekeepers and the sort of insidery horse-race watchers for whom scripted debate “zingers” have meaning. The “joke that needs explanation” part is that Bush absolutely crushed Dukakis in the election, winning 40 states including several that never went Republican again, and blasting through his September poll numbers to an extent that suggested something was seriously wrong with the poll methodology. The three things most people remember about 1988 (the huge impact of Bentsen’s insult, the election being a close call that turned on nonsense incidents like Dukakis in the tank, and the Willie Horton narrative) are all wrong. No, it isn’t. These were all reported on at the time and the subject of much commentary. GHWB disowned the Quayle pick later, threw him under the bus. So that stuck. What are your (unstated) reasons for the victory? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/311 "2020-10-12T03:25:04Z")
And then served one term as a failed president. Fun fact: his son invaded Iraq, created ISIS, destabilized the Middle East and hastened the decline of America. Now that’s funny. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/312 "2020-10-12T03:25:34Z")
Surprised that no-one has mentioned “If Microsoft made cars…” ---
**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 12, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/313 "2020-10-12T03:31:48Z")
Excuse me, but at what point did Bush dump Quayle? It seems to me his failure to do so contributed to his not being reelected. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/314 "2020-10-12T13:13:37Z")
I’m in east central Missouri and my Papa Johns has anchovies available, and I usually get them on my half of the pie. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/315 "2020-10-12T14:27:29Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Again, LA =/= universal Of course. There’s also Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, . . . ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/316 "2020-10-12T17:13:37Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Surprised that no-one has mentioned > “If Microsoft made cars…” Why would they? This is a thread for jokes that require explanation; that joke is self-evident (computers keep getting more and more powerful, but never seem to get really reliable). ---
**Author:** ![ZosterSandstorm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ZosterSandstorm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZosterSandstorm)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/317 "2020-10-12T17:23:19Z")
The MS/cars thing dates to the mid 90s when absolutely nothing in the Windows or Mac environments worked reliably. Teenagers who have only used Windows 7 and 10, OSX, and iOS/Android devices have no frame of reference for programs that never do what they are supposed to, systems that crash for no reason daily, and the need to spend hours on end configuring every new hardware component or installed program. Anything that relies on “the typical consumer-grade computer is shit” absolutely does need explaining, as it hasn’t been true for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/318 "2020-10-12T17:58:12Z")
I came across one recently. At the beginning of _Get Smart_ (2008) there’s a reference to _Inspector Gadget_. The joke was that Don Adams who played the original Maxwell Smart was the voice of Inspector Gadget. I doubt that many people nowadays know who Don Adams even was. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/319 "2020-10-12T18:30:29Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Surprised that no-one has mentioned > “If Microsoft made cars…” or the corolary joke At Microsoft, quality is job 1.1. (works better spoken, with a pause before “point one”) ---
**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 12, 2020, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/320 "2020-10-12T18:42:09Z")
Watching an episode of _ **Family Guy** _ that referenced _ **The Simpsons** _, I had to explain to my teenage daughter why it had Stewie Griffin doing a Butterfinger commercial. Of course, they were parodying the “Nodody lays a finger on my Butterfinger” commercials that Bart Simpson did in the early '90s, when _ **The Simpsons** _ was the hottest show on television. ---
**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:** [October 12, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/321 "2020-10-12T19:49:10Z")
I remembered a question I asked on this board a few years back. In _To Be or Not to Be_ (the 1942 version) there’s a line where a character says “They named a brandy after Napoleon, they made a herring out of Bismarck, and the Fuhrer is going to end up as a piece of cheese” and I was trying to figure out why it was funny to call Hitler a piece of cheese. Somebody explained that back in the forties, cheese was a slang term for shit, so they were saying Hitler was a piece of shit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=17)