# 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:** 49
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/962 "2021-01-14T21:28:35Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > “Hamlet dear, your problem is clear…” > > “Neither a borrower nor a lender be…” > > That second one was where I learned the word ‘solvency’. I think I remember that “Gilligan’s Island” musical version of “Hamlet” sung to a tune lifted from Bizet’s “Carmen”. I wonder how many people in the United States had their first exposure to both opera and Shakespeare by watching “Gilligan’s Island”. My first opera exposure came from a much more highbrow source, Warner Brothers cartoons; “Kill da wabbit!”. ---
**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:** [January 14, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/963 "2021-01-14T22:20:12Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > > [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > > > “Hamlet dear, your problem is clear…” > > > > > “Neither a borrower nor a lender be…” > > > > > > That second one was where I learned the word ‘solvency’. > > I think I remember that “Gilligan’s Island” musical version of “Hamlet” sung to a tune lifted from Bizet’s “Carmen”. Where I went to college, they had a Shakespeare’s birthday party every year. And, every year, someone did that “play”. It was more than one song from Carmen, it was the whole damned opera! “Neither a borrower nor a lender be…” was to the tune of “Torreadore”; oof. It’s been too long.I’m trying to remember which songs went with which tunes. I haven’t sung anything from Carmen in 35 years. Hell, I haven’t sung any opera in 35 years (unless you include singing along with Jesus Christ Superstar or Tommy) “Hamlet, Hamlet, be a lamblet”… “I ask to be or not to be - that is the question that I ask of thee” OK, looking it up, the “to be or not to be” song was Habanara from Carmen; the “lamblet” song was from “The Tales of Hoffmann”. Well, I guess that needed to be explained to me! I thought they were all from Carmen. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/964 "2021-01-15T17:14:17Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And speaking of phones, how many people today know what a party line was? Wasn’t that those 900 numbers, where you called and got connected immediately to a group of like-minded singles right in your own area? And, speaking of phone EXchanges, when the Brian Setzer Orchestra did their own version of the classic PEnnsylvania 6-5000, the song ends with an old telephone operator voice going “Sorry - that number has been permanently disconnected.” ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/965 "2021-01-15T18:17:20Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > And, speaking of phone EXchanges, when the Brian Setzer Orchestra did their own version of the classic PEnnsylvania 6-5000, the song ends with an old telephone operator voice going “Sorry - that number has been permanently disconnected.” Except that’s not correct. [Hotel Pennsylvania](https://www.hotelpenn.com/) still has that number. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/966 "2021-01-15T22:10:46Z")
Back when I was in college, in the band, we were traveling to play at a basketball tournament, and stayed in the Hotel Pennsylvania. We thought it was cool, because everyone in the band already knew the number! Except it turned out that we didn’t: It’s PE6-5000, not PA6-5000 like we assumed. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/967 "2021-01-16T16:23:16Z")
No one could spell “Pennsylvania”?!? ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/968 "2021-01-16T16:24:58Z")
Those young whippersnappers didn’t remember when it was it used to be Penna. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/969 "2021-01-16T16:39:06Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > No one could spell “Pennsylvania”?!? In case this isn’t a whoosh (and Chronos’ post isn’t either), this may also be a joke that needs explaining. The two-letter abbreviations for states were introduced in 1963. Before that many states had abbreviations longer than two letter; Pennsylvania was often Penn. or even Penna. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/970 "2021-01-16T16:44:09Z")
In other words, the band members were going by today’s postal abbreviation rather than the spelling of the actual word itself? Okay… 🥺 ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/971 "2021-01-16T16:46:21Z")
That’s the implication of the post. Actually, there’s no reason the postal abbreviation couldn’t be PE instead of PA, since Pennsylvania is the only state that begins with a “p”. The real problem is all the states that begin with “m”. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/972 "2021-01-16T16:50:59Z")
The song came out in 1940. Today’s postal abbreviations came in 1963. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/dLECCmKnrys/maxresdefault.jpg "Gary Gulman On How The States Got Their Abbreviations | CONAN on TBS") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLECCmKnrys) > **[U.S. State Abbreviations - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com](https://study.com/academy/lesson/us-state-abbreviations.html)** > > Each state has its own unique shortcut to make it easier for people to truncate the state names. In this lesson, you will learn about the standard... ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/973 "2021-01-16T17:32:21Z")
But the PE in the phone number has nothing to do with the two-letter abbreviations of the state. Telephone numbers were always the first two letters of the words that represented them. This predated the two-letter state abbreviation. New York used to have a “Murray Hill” exchange and people had to be reminded that the letters were “MU,” not “MH.” ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/974 "2021-01-16T17:41:29Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > But the PE in the phone number has nothing to do with the two-letter abbreviations of the state. Yes, I am aware of that. That’s why I wasn’t sure if **Chronos** was joking or not. It’s not a likely mistake to make. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/975 "2021-01-16T17:51:07Z")
Even though the postal codes were set in stone in 1963 it still took time for the concept to take hold. The misabbreviation of states was a headache for a while, and still is occasionally because of the M states mentioned above. Those of school age in the 60s would have learned that the proper way to address a letter used the official 2 letter code but the rest of the country had to pick it up over time. If you get the ZIP Code you’ll be okay, but the problems come from people who don’t live in the M states not knowing those, like MA is not Maine, it’s Massachusetts, MO is Missouri, not Montana, and MS is Mississippi, not MI. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/976 "2021-01-16T19:04:59Z")
In “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas (1964), they mention “Philadelphia, PA.” I guess I can see there might be some confusion between the two abbreviations on that basis, especially among people who had heard the song but weren’t familiar with the old phone prefixes. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/977 "2021-01-16T19:09:32Z")
“Pa.” _was_ one of the traditional abbreviations for Pennsylvania, which I remember from the 1950s/1960s. That’s almost certainly why the postal service chose it over the more logical PE. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/978 "2021-01-16T19:34:25Z")
Yeah. People understood “Penn” or “Penna” or “PA” - “PE” would have gotten blank looks. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/979 "2021-01-16T19:38:38Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Actually, there’s no reason the postal abbreviation couldn’t be PE instead of PA PE is the postal code for Peru. [https://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/codes.html](https://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/codes.html) Not that that means much, since ID is both Idaho and Indonesia and IL is both Illinois and Israel and YT is Yukon Territory and Mayotte… ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/980 "2021-01-16T19:43:42Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > PE is the postal code for Peru. Just one more reason why I get those two places confused. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/981 "2021-01-16T19:56:14Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > PE is the postal code for Peru. And PA is the postal code for Panama. I don’t think international codes were taken into consideration when the US abbreviations were codified in 1963; as you note, many other countries have codes that correspond to US state codes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=48) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=50)