# 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:** 28
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/542 "2020-10-27T21:06:32Z")
I’ve never seen it. They may have a more comprehensive stock of images than the Flintstones, Japanese animation was almost always done that way, they didn’t have the history of high quality animation like that of Disney, Warner Bros. and others. Early productions like Astro Boy could never have been done on schedule without heavy reuse. But in the end it turns out to be stories and characters that drive animation success more than the quality of the artwork or the animation. I don’t know how many new frames per episode they produce for South Park but there’s not much to them at all, the show is all about story and characters. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/543 "2020-10-27T21:19:47Z")
On the first SNL episode, there was a Weekend Update joke about Hoffa (when it was a fairly fresh story). The Teamsters, supposedly regretting his disappearance, said “He’ll always be a cornerstone of the organization.” 😄 ---
**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 27, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/544 "2020-10-27T21:33:25Z")
1. I have no idea when _Wait ‘Til Your Father Gets Home_ was broadcast. But Dad ain’t so bad… I saw a couple episodes when I was wee tacked on to other old cartoons. Not sure why I remember some of the theme song. 2. Anchovies on pizza are the shizzle. Wish more places had them. I keep some in the fridge to add my own, sometimes. If the pizza place mushed up anchovies in the sauce so they were invisible, people would say how great that sauce is. Lots of people don’t like them for the same reason people don’t like creamed broccoli or opera. (Indoctrination). 3. A successful lawyer is cheating on his wife with the secretary many years ago. He is mortified when she becomes pregnant. He is scared his wife will discover his infidelity. So he gives a lot of money to the secretary on condition that she travel to Italy for the pregnancy and delivery. The secretary agrees, but since there is no Internet or phone, wants to know how she can discreetly contact him after the delivery. “Send me a post card”, he says. “Write ‘spaghetti’ on it, and this will be our code for a successful delivery.” ---
**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 27, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/545 "2020-10-27T23:46:02Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > My favorite Pat Paulsen joke remains “We’re upping our standards, so up yours!” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WsMFZBDIcFs/hqdefault.jpg "7Up Yours") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsMFZBDIcFs) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/546 "2020-10-28T00:28:19Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > A successful lawyer is cheating on his wife with the secretary many years ago. He is mortified when she becomes pregnant. He is scared his wife will discover his infidelity. So he gives a lot of money to the secretary on condition that she travel to Italy for the pregnancy and delivery. The secretary agrees, but since there is no Internet or phone, wants to know how she can discreetly contact him after the delivery. “Send me a post card”, he says. “Write ‘spaghetti’ on it, and this will be our code for a successful delivery.” > > Nine months later, the lawyer’s wife sees a post card in the mail. She gives it to her husband, who becomes flushed and starts complaining of chest pain. Scared, she calls an ambulance. At the hospital, the intern asks her what caused the heart attack. > > “I’ve no idea. He was resting and I gave him a post card. It didn’t make any sense to me. On the postcard was written ‘spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti. Three with sausage and meatballs, and three with clams.” ? Is this a candidate for the thread topic collection or did you just feel like telling the joke? Because AFAICT, although the joke’s a bit old-fashioned, there’s absolutely nothing in it that requires explaining to a modern audience. ---
**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 28, 2020, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/547 "2020-10-28T00:31:39Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > there’s absolutely nothing in it that requires explaining to a modern audience. I was laughing at the joke, and never noticed that it had nothing to do with the topic until you mentioned it. Oh… unless it’s referring to the tangent of “Yes, boss having sex with secretary was a meme back then.” ---
**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 28, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/548 "2020-10-28T00:32:59Z")
> [@digs](#): > > > [@Kimstu](#): > > > > there’s absolutely nothing in it that requires explaining to a modern audience. > > I was laughing at the joke, and never noticed that it had nothing to do with the topic until you mentioned it. > Oh… unless it’s referring to the tangent of “Yes, boss having sex with secretary was a meme back then.” Or, “what the hell is a postcard?” ---
**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 28, 2020, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/549 "2020-10-28T01:22:47Z")
I have literally never seen “spaghetti with clams” offered at a restaurant in Canada. In my mind it is an old fashioned dish. The joke does not need explanation but “alla vongole” might? And postcards might be just e-versions? ---
**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 28, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/550 "2020-10-28T01:31:14Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I have literally never seen “spaghetti with clams” offered at a restaurant in Canada. In my mind it is an old fashioned dish. _That’s_ the “old-fashioned” aspect? I dunno about Canada, but at least in New York [pasta with some variety of clam sauce](https://www.grubstreet.com/2018/07/linguine-clam-sauce-new-york-city.html) is one of the standard menu items in Italian restaurants. ---
**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 28, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/551 "2020-10-28T01:53:14Z")
Just pumping out ideas. The old fashioned aspect was the secretary meme and the post card. I’ll admit both are pretty weak and the joke is not that hard to understand, though. ---
**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 28, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/552 "2020-10-28T02:00:36Z")
Except for why sextuplets weren’t international news.😉 ---
**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 28, 2020, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/553 "2020-10-28T02:09:15Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > 1. I have no idea when _Wait ‘Til Your Father Gets Home_ was broadcast. But Dad ain’t so bad… I saw a couple episodes when I was wee tacked on to other old cartoons. Not sure why I remember some of the theme song. Early 1970s. After “All in the Family” - before “Happy Days.” Insanely catchy theme… ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/554 "2020-10-28T04:24:07Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > 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. If that was the way they learned it, why was the “reveal” necessary? > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > 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. New Math didn’t improve understanding and it decimated basic arithmetic skills. And “trying to improve” is not necessarily the same as actually improving. To avoid further discussion of this subject in this thread, here’s the discussion from 4 years ago. [Explain this 'new math'](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/555 "2020-10-28T04:26:37Z")
Postcards? Pretty passe, except for tourism. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/556 "2020-10-28T04:39:09Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I gave two examples of it. Here’s another: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3iXGbJKjNxU/hqdefault.jpg "European Vacation waiter scene") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iXGbJKjNxU) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/557 "2020-10-28T04:42:54Z")
No one in that clip is intimidated into anything. It was a clip from a bad comedy film\*, where the waiter made fun of their inability to understand french. - sequelitis, since the original had some great moments. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/558 "2020-10-28T04:46:05Z")
He doesn’t intimidate them but neither is the waiter interested in their order and tells them what he will bring them which is mostly awful stuff to which they all happily agree to. I’d say more broadly it is the trope that Americans will be mistreated in some fashion by waiters when in a restaurant in France. ---
**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 28, 2020, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/559 "2020-10-28T05:02:36Z")
I got news for you: Americans are treated badly by French Canadians in Montreal. ☹ Here’s a joke I just heard on _ **Married … with Children** _: “She’s so ugly, she’d make Schwartzkopf wave a white flag!” People all over the area are probably now going “Who the hell is Schwartzkopf?” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/560 "2020-10-28T05:35:10Z")
Yes, that is indeed the trope. ---
**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 28, 2020, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/561 "2020-10-28T11:16:21Z")
I was watching an episode of Wings last night. While flying they saw (or thought they saw) a UFO streaking across the sky. One of them joked that the UFO had a bumper sticker that said, “55,000 miles per hour, it’s a law we can live with”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=27) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=29)