# 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:** 31
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/602 "2020-11-02T07:02:29Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Are there any opposite cases? That is: Jokes that work today, but if anyone had said them 40, 50, 60, 70 years ago, nobody would have understood? I tried to start a thread like that (specifically about movies rather than jokes), and nobody replied ☹ I think maybe Cafe Society tends to lean towards nostalgia? > [@Synchronic (of our time) elements in modern movies](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/synchronic-of-our-time-elements-in-modern-movies/917638): > > We’ve often mentioned the things that just don’t work any more from old movies and TV shows: waiting for the telephone to ring, finding a phone booth etc. But I’ve just been enjoying “Yesterday” – which features lovely contextual use of Google, and some Uber movies, and I thought: What did you like in a movie that couldn’t have been there 10 years ago? ---
**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:** [November 2, 2020, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/603 "2020-11-02T12:01:49Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I tried to start a thread like that (specifically about movies rather than jokes), and nobody replied ☹ > I think maybe Cafe Society tends to lean towards nostalgia? That’s so much more limited, though. The world 10 years ago is extremely similar to the world today, in a way that the world of 1980, 1970, or 1960 is not. And you’ve limited it to movies of the past 10 years, and the majority of popular movies from that time frame have been comic book/science fiction/post-apocalyptic, so they’re not really set in the world of the last decade. To answer your question, you’d need to look at movies made 2010-2020 that are set in our world and that include specific elements like a Trumpian presidency or a TikTok or kids playing Fortnite or whatever. Those examples will be really rare. A true inverse of this thread could be interesting, though. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/604 "2020-11-02T13:46:52Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I tried to start a thread like that (specifically about movies rather than jokes), and nobody replied ☹ > I think maybe Cafe Society tends to lean towards nostalgia? You didn’t try to start a thread like that, about jokes that work today but didn’t work 40, 50, 60, or 70 years ago; you limited it to just ten years before the movie. Consider that a movie generally spends several years in development, tend not to try to incorporate things that are newly common (they either use futuristic speculation or things ‘everyone knows about’) and most technologies and social changes take years to percolate, setting the ‘how far back’ dial to just 10 years means you’re not going to hit much. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/605 "2020-11-02T16:23:29Z")
> [@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. Borrowing – Subtract one from the 4 and add ten to the 2. New Math – “So you look at the four in the tens place. Now that’s really four tens, so you make it three tens, regroup, and you change a ten to ten ones and you add 'em to the two and get twelve … (And you know why four plus minus one plus ten is fourteen minus one? 'Cause addition is commutative, right!)” > [@Andy\_L](#): > > (it amounts to the same thing of course, but was apparently taught as a method without explanation) Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/606 "2020-11-02T16:41:17Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > I know SNAFU and FUBAR, but not TARFU. Ditto. (I’m 66.) There were also SUSFU (Situation Unchanged - Still FU) and JAAFU (Joint Anglo-American FU). ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/607 "2020-11-02T17:46:43Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I remember a bunch of homophobic jokes about AIDS, back in the 80’s. First time I ever heard of AIDS was when somebody asked me what you call a homosexual on roller skates. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/608 "2020-11-02T17:54:57Z")
Every four years I find myself asking “Where’s Pat Paulsen when we need him?” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/609 "2020-11-02T19:18:41Z")
Cell phone jokes. Computer jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/610 "2020-11-02T19:23:24Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Cell phone jokes. Computer jokes Well, yeah, we can take for granted that modern jokes involving modern technology would be incomprehensible to anyone in the 1950’s. I was wondering about other than that. Like jokes involving cultural or political topics, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/611 "2020-11-02T19:27:52Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > This one, though, would (and it’s not quite as mean-spirited as others, so I don’t mind posting it. Nevertheless, I apologize if it offends any Dopers): > > _What’s the hardest part of getting AIDS? Convincing your parents that you’re Haitian._ I was about to post the same joke, but I would have put it in a spoiler. Back in the heyday of Usenet, on the jokes pages, the accepted rule was that offensive jokes were allowed, provided that you (1) announced that the joke was offensive, and to whom, and (2) spoilered it (Rot-13 in those days), thus requiring further overt input from the reader to see it. I’ve often wondered if that protocol would be accepted on the SDMB today. ETA: BTW, you can still do Rot-13. [Here’s a web-site to do it.](https://rot13.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/612 "2020-11-02T19:35:48Z")
Question for gays reading this: I wonder about that Haitian joke: Would that particular joke be widely taken as offensive by gays? Would it have been widely taken as offensive back in the 1970’s or 1980’s? ---
**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:** [November 2, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/613 "2020-11-02T19:38:35Z")
Oh yeah, here’s my favorite uberdweeb joke from the 90s that needs _so much explaining:_ What do you get if Dracula bites Lee Iacocca? autoexec.bat ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/614 "2020-11-02T19:42:02Z")
For me it would matter whether the joke was being told in earnest, or whether it was simply being repeated for instructional purposes, as has been done in this thread. Though I suppose the line between the two can get pretty blurred. I’m thinking of a thread we had years ago about whether rape jokes can be funny, and it was filled with some pretty disgusting jokes where it was clear the poster found them funny. I’m not sure spoilering those jokes would have helped much, because the point of the thread was to discuss rape jokes. I think someone posting a joke like that outside the context of that thread would receive a warning, and I’m fine with that. Spoilering an offensive joke doesn’t make you less of a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/615 "2020-11-02T19:47:00Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I think someone posting a joke like that outside the context of that thread would receive a warning, and I’m fine with that. Spoilering an offensive joke doesn’t make you less of a jerk. Yet, we have the “two-click rule” protocol on this very board, whereby offensive content can be posted or linked, providing that you give advance warning that it’s offensive, and require overt input from the user who chooses to see it. How is that different? ---
**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:** [November 2, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/616 "2020-11-02T19:47:49Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Well, yeah, we can take for granted that modern jokes involving modern technology would be incomprehensible to anyone in the 1950’s. I was wondering about other than that. Like jokes involving cultural or political topics, for example. Politics: Jokes about “tiny hands” are relatively common now, as are myriad other political jokes involving the color orange, or plays on MAGA, or the number 45. Reality TV: “Voted off the island” is a shorthand that’s used in jest. “Real [people] of [location]” is also used. And there’s plenty of other cultural elements. Michael Bay as a synonym for stupid explosions. In another thread, someone referred to some of the president’s followers as “Vanilla ISIS,” a reference that would be triply bewildering to someone from the 1970s. None of the COVID jokes would make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/617 "2020-11-02T19:50:17Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Reality TV: “Voted off the island” is a shorthand that’s used in jest. I suppose you could also put the phrase “jumping the shark” in that category too, although its usage is not at all confined to jokes. ---
**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:** [November 2, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/618 "2020-11-02T19:51:14Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > What do you get if Dracula bites Lee Iacocca? > > autoexec.bat 😆 ---
**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:** [November 2, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/619 "2020-11-02T19:58:56Z")
This is an example of a joke that reads today as not a joke at all: In Spider Robinson’s “Time Pressure” (written in the early 1980s but taking place in the early 1970s), there’s a scene when a character is on the phone with a friend, asking him to come over as soon as possible to provide much needed help. At the end of the conversation the friend says “Look, it’s hard to run full tilt like this and talk on the phone. See you sooner.” This is intended to be a cute and whimsical way for the friend to indicate that the sooner he hangs up, the sooner he’ll arrive, since, obviously, he can’t actually be running while talking on the phone in 1973 (or even 1981), but in our world of cell phones, it seems just like a straightforward statement, hardly whimsical at all. ---
**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:** [November 2, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/620 "2020-11-02T20:08:57Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Back in the heyday of Usenet, on the jokes pages, the accepted rule was that offensive jokes were allowed, provided that you (1) announced that the joke was offensive, and to whom, and (2) spoilered it You know how to tell the beginning of an off-color joke? (looks hard to the left) (looks hard to the right) . That’s a joke that does NOT work well on a message board. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/621 "2020-11-02T20:18:46Z")
Today, we are sensitive (some would say hyper-sensitive) about jokes that somehow belittle any identifiable group, to the extent that offended people are derided as being humorless or “fragile snowflakes”. That itself might take explaining to someone from the 1950’s, when we (collective “we”) weren’t so enlightened. (So it’s on-topic for this thread!) There was even a meta-joke about that. I’ll quote it here, but warning: I’m quoting it “for discussion” but also because I think it is funny. So sue me. Warning: Offensive to feminists and maybe light bulbs. > **If you click here, then forever hold your peace.** > > How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb? > > > **** > > > > That’s not funny, buster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=30) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=32)