# 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:** 41
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/802 "2020-12-07T00:36:54Z")
Also, at least in my opinion, the joke didn’t really work because Linda McCartney was not unattractive. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/803 "2020-12-07T00:40:40Z")
Did you hear Superman drowned? They found him face-down in Veronica Lake. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/804 "2020-12-07T02:08:21Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Jeffrey Dahmer was the notorious serial murderer and cannibal That he was a rapist and murderer is factual. That he was a cannibal is apparently somewhat in question. It was hyped up—it all came out when Silence of the Lambs was making a big splash—but it might not have been the case that he was routinely eating people. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/805 "2020-12-07T02:38:17Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > Arriving in the middle of the movie would seem to spoil endings. E.g., you’d find out that “the butler did it” before knowing what “it” was. Did audiences just accept this? I suspect it depended on the movie and on the audience: It was common among kids who were going to the movies to see the latest generic Western or monster movie or whatever, less common among adults who were going out to see a specific, highly regarded cinematic feature. I think of it as sort of analogous to turning on the TV and watching whatever’s on, even if it’s in the middle of a program. But this is mostly speculation on my part. This sort of thing is mostly before my time. But I do remember a time or two when I was a kid (in the 70s) arriving late to a movie and sticking around afterward for the next showing to see the bit at the beginning that we had missed the first time around, and then leaving when it got to the part where we came in. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/806 "2020-12-07T02:53:37Z")
The first time I saw _ **Star Wars** _ (July 1977), my friends and I sat through two complete showings. The next time I tried this was with _ **101 Dalmatians** _ in 1985, and the usher stood in the aisle waiting for me to leave after the first showing. In 1978 or '79, I was allowed to sit through two complete showings of _ **The Lion in Winter** _ and _ **A Man for All Seasons** _, but that was a special weekend event at an “art house” cinema, not a summer blockbuster. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/807 "2020-12-07T03:45:57Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > That he was a rapist and murderer is factual. That he was a cannibal is apparently somewhat in question. It was hyped up—it all came out when Silence of the Lambs was making a big splash—but it might not have been the case that he was routinely eating people. I feel like just nibbling on someone that one time is enough to earn the cannibal moniker. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/808 "2020-12-07T04:25:48Z")
I should think keeping human body parts in his fridge is too. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/809 "2020-12-07T04:43:42Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > > [@cochrane](#): > > > > Jeffrey Dahmer was the notorious serial murderer and cannibal > > That he was a rapist and murderer is factual. That he was a cannibal is apparently somewhat in question. It was hyped up—it all came out when Silence of the Lambs was making a big splash—but it might not have been the case that he was routinely eating people. Still, that was his reputation in the public mind. You know the old joke, “but ye shag one sheep.” And one of his nicknames was the “Milwaukee Cannibal.” Besides, the joke doesn’t work otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/810 "2020-12-07T06:59:55Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > Arriving in the middle of the movie would seem to spoil endings. E.g., you’d find out that “the butler did it” before knowing what “it” was. Did audiences just accept this? Yes, they did accept it. I grew up in the 1960s, and nobody thought it was a big deal to see the end of a movie before the beginning. Nobody except me, apparently. My parents (who were both born in the 1930s) thought that looking up movie times in the newspaper, and arriving on time so you could watch a movie from the beginning, was the lamest, stupidest thing imaginable. I begged and pleaded for them to let us see a movie from the beginning, just once, but they wouldn’t budge. Sometimes I think I spent half my childhood groping and stumbling around in dark movie theaters, looking for an empty seat. > [@Chronos](#): > > Were mystery movies even a big thing, at the time? Or for that matter, movies with a strictly chronological story at all? If you took, say, Wizard of Oz, and switched up the order of all of the scenes, it seems to me that it’d still work pretty well. This is a good point. I may have whined about seeing movies this way, but it didn’t really matter that much. Movies with twist endings or big surprises were rare, and 60s movies in general weren’t all that “plotty.” _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_ is another example of a film that wouldn’t be affected much if you rearranged the scenes. _It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World_ doesn’t have much of a plot beyond “crazy stuff happens.” ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/811 "2020-12-07T11:42:44Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I should think keeping human body parts in his fridge is too. The broader evidence was that he wasn’t doing this for purposes of cannibalism. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/812 "2020-12-07T12:53:13Z")
50s-60’s joke from my Montreal schooldays: Q: If the Secret Service guards the President, and the Mounties guard the Canadian Prime Minister, who guards de Gaulle? A: Jacques Plante. (the goalie (“de Gaulle” = “da goal”) for the Montreal Canadiens at the time) ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/813 "2020-12-07T14:36:15Z")
You mean he was the model for The Collector? 😮 [https://ifanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/simpsons-collector.jpg](https://ifanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/simpsons-collector.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/814 "2020-12-07T15:11:56Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I feel like just nibbling on someone that one time is enough to earn the cannibal moniker. So Mike Tyson is a cannibal? ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/815 "2020-12-07T15:13:54Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > So Mike Tyson is a cannibal? That’s exactly what I was trying to say and I’m glad you picked up that. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/816 "2020-12-07T15:15:18Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > So Mike Tyson is a cannibal? Did he ingest the ear? ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/817 "2020-12-07T15:18:41Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Did you hear Superman drowned? > They found him face-down in Veronica Lake. Not sure what the connection between the two is though I heard the 90s version of that: Did you hear that Mellissa Etherege drowned? They found her face down in Ricki Lake. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/818 "2020-12-07T15:21:16Z")
Years ago at a Ren Faire I heard a [Spoonerism master](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqhgTJFndBQ) suggest Tyson could start a new sports team: the Fightin’ Buccaneers. Medieval topical, that guy. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/819 "2020-12-07T15:22:39Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Not sure what the connection between the two is though I heard the 90s version of that: > > Did you hear that Mellissa Etherege drowned? > They found her face down in Ricki Lake. Same joke. The one I posted was before my time, but it was explained to me that George Reeves and Veronica Lake had something going on. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/820 "2020-12-07T16:00:02Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > You mean he was the model for The Collector? 😮 What he was doing was far more disgusting than the Collector–he was likely a necrophile, and to top it off, he wasn’t an expert in disposing of bodies. He mostly likely put them in the fridge to keep them around and also because he didn’t know what else to do with them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/821 "2020-12-07T21:44:43Z")
So, nobody ever watched stage plays that way, did they? I wonder how it came to be that the tradition was different for movies than for plays. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=40) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=42)