# 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:** 37
**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:** [November 15, 2020, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/722 "2020-11-15T14:42:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What’s a telephone booth? Well, then virtually no young’uns today would get the joke in the Superman movie where Clark Kent runs toward a phone booth that, with deft camera zoom, is revealed to be a stand-alone pay phone. I mean, you have to be familiar with an early trope where Superman changes into his costume in a phone booth, before you can appreciate that they’re lampshading it. And that they were replacing booths with kiosks. Oh, and you have to be familiar with pay phones, which I’m not sure even my millennial kids remember… “See, children, there were telephones on street corners…” “Phones…? Oh, for homeless people? That’s so cool.” “No, for everyone.” “So everyone needed phones on street corners?” “And you had to put quarters in them. If you were calling someone far away, a lady’s voice would break into your conversation and demand more quarters…” “This is getting too random. I’m dippin’.” ---
**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:** [November 15, 2020, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/723 "2020-11-15T15:48:43Z")
With the passing of the [VW Beetle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qPu8lsWVVg), the joke gets even more obscure. _If Teddy Kennedy had driven a VW, he’d have been President._ ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/724 "2020-11-15T16:07:21Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’ll tell it here in spoiler form to avoid offending anyone with tender sensibilities: > > A black minister is going from door to door in Harlem to collect donations for his church. > > He knocks on a door in one building, and the guy who answers it says “Hey, man! Anybody ever tell you you look just like old Satchmo?” > > The minister knocks on another door, and the guy who answers it says “Whoa! Man, you look just like old Satchmo!” > > This goes on until he gets to a door opened by a really hot babe. “Hey, man!” she says. “Doggone if you don’t look exactly like old Satchmo!” > > The minister smiles and says “Hello, Dolly! Well, hello, Dolly…!” > > Not all that bad, is it? 😋 > > I just learned that spoiler tags have to be put after each line, not just at the beginning and the end. Ignorance fought! I suppose the minister is lucky he didn’t resemble another celebrity. A man sits down at a bar and orders a drink. The bartender looks at him and says, “Hey, you’re John Wayne! Look, everybody, John Wayne is in my bar!” The man shushes him. “Look, keep your voice down. I’m not John Wayne. I just look like him.” The bartender apologizes and leaves him to his drink. After a while, the man excuses himself to go to the restroom. He returns and his left pants leg is soaking wet. He orders another drink. The bartender notices his pants leg, but minds his own business. A half hour later the man excuses himself and goes to the restroom again. This time when he returns to the bar, his other pants leg is soaking wet. The bartender decides he’s had enough and says, “Look, John Wayne or not, if you’re going to keep peeing your pants, you can’t use my restroom.” “I told you, I’m not John Wayne. I just happen to look like him. It’s been a problem all my life. Every time I go up to a urinal, the guy next to me turns and says ‘I know you! You’re John Wayne!’” ---
**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:** [November 15, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/725 "2020-11-15T16:31:52Z")
Why did JFK, Jr, fly his plane into the ocean? Uncle Ted taught him how to navigate. How JFK, Jr, differ from his Uncle Ted? Uncle Ted killed just one woman when he crashed into the ocean. ---
**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:** [November 15, 2020, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/726 "2020-11-15T16:34:28Z")
Uhmmm … that it’s a variation on the “Dirty Vicar” joke? 🤔 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/727 "2020-11-15T16:57:53Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Every time I go up to a urinal, the guy next to me turns and says ‘I know you! You’re John Wayne!’” John Wayne himself told that joke; he said it was why he wore dark-colored pants. ---
**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:** [November 15, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/728 "2020-11-15T17:06:37Z")
Here’s one that dates back to the early '70s: What has 19 legs and lives in Massachusetts? The Kennedy family. Google “Edward M Kennedy, Jr.” ---
**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:** [November 15, 2020, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/729 "2020-11-15T17:46:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What’s a telephone booth?. VooDoo Brewery’s New Kensington location has lots of old-time kitschy decorations, including a phone booth. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/730 "2020-11-15T18:10:49Z")
> [@digs](#): > > “See, children, there were telephones on street corners…” > “Phones…? Oh, for homeless people? That’s so cool.” > “No, for everyone.” > “So everyone needed phones on street corners?” > “And you had to put quarters in them. If you were calling someone far away, a lady’s voice would break into your conversation and demand more quarters…” > “This is getting too random. I’m dippin’.” Along the same lines, I had to explain what it meant to “drop a dime on someone” recently. The phrase appeared in a song lyric. (And yes, I’m just about old enough to remember when a payphone call cost a dime.) ---
**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:** [November 15, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/731 "2020-11-15T19:58:30Z")
I knew a guy back in the '70s who’d answer his phone by saying “Go ahead, it’s your dime!” ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/732 "2020-11-15T20:58:01Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > What has 19 legs and lives in Massachusetts? > > The Kennedy family. In the mid-1980s, there was a similar one about “What has 9 arms and \?” Def Leppard. Referencing the drummer who lost an arm in a car crash. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/733 "2020-11-15T21:07:56Z")
What has 22 legs, and two wings, but can’t fly? Manchester United. Referring to [a plane crash in 1958](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster), which killed 23 people, including eight members of the team ---
**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:** [November 15, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/734 "2020-11-15T22:58:21Z")
There’s a joke that requires knowledge of who Red Adair was, some of the stereotypes associated with the peoples of the British Isles, and a once famous pair of dancers. > **Summary** > > ‘Red’ Adair was staying at a hotel in London following his work capping an oil well blow out on an ocean drilling rig in the North Sea. He was the toast of town there for his great work in stemming the flow of oil out into the ocean. A Londoner noticed Adair sitting at the hotel bar, walked up to him and asked “Are you Red Adair?” Red answered “I shore am!”, The English fellow then said “Good show man taking care of that oil problem, let me buy you a drink!”. Red responded, "Aw heck, your country just paid me a few million dollars for that work so how 'bout I buy you a drink? The English fellow heartily agreed. > Nearby was a Scotsman, who hearing the two of them figured he’d be able to get a free drink too. So when the English fellow stepped away he walked up to Adair and asked “Would’ya be Red Adair now?” Red replied as before and the Scot said “Hoot mon that was amazing work ya did on that oil rig, let me buy you a drink!”. Once again Red offered to buy and the fellow heartily accepted. > An Irish fellow also in the bar saw those two men getting free drinks and wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to get on himself so he approached as well and asked “Would ye be Red Adair now would ye?” Red again responded “I shore am!”, and the Irish fellow then asks him “Well then, howl is Ginger Rogers doing these days?” ---
**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:** [November 15, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/735 "2020-11-15T23:40:15Z")
Did people ever mistake Red Adair for John Wayne? 🤨😁 [Hellfighters (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfighters_(film)) ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/736 "2020-11-16T01:04:25Z")
Why, does he have pee on his pants? ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2020, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/737 "2020-11-18T08:58:40Z")
Didn’t read this whole thread, but I’ve had to explain to younger peeps about why Mr. Hand’s class was smelling the syllabi he passed around in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. You got high off the purple ink. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2020, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/738 "2020-11-18T12:28:57Z")
How can Fast Times at Ridgemont High be 38 years ago? Get me my Serutan. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/739 "2020-11-19T17:57:34Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > How can Fast Times at Ridgemont High be 38 years ago? I just bought the DVD. It holds up. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2020, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/740 "2020-11-20T06:20:06Z")
In “A Tisket, a Tasket, Can Peggy Make a Basket?” (E01,S08 of _ **Married … with Children** _, 5 September 1993), Al asks if the opening act for “The Captain and Tennille Unplugged” is “The Carpenter.” Ooooooooooooh! 😖 ---
**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:** [November 20, 2020, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/741 "2020-11-20T06:43:34Z")
I was thinking of an old SNL skit, which had a hilarious premise, but the execution fell flat. And rewatching it, not only will people now not get all of the celebrity references, I barely remember them. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/R_Ejc3N9JKU/hqdefault.jpg "SNL TV Funhouse Charlie Brown Christmas") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Ejc3N9JKU) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=36) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=38)