# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/141 "2020-09-27T08:42:11Z")
Up until the mid-90s sitcoms were still have episodes where someone was legitimately shocked at the idea of eating raw fish and it being treated as an actual problem on whether or not a character would work up the guts to eat it. Nowadays the idea of having to work up the guts of eating pretty much any “typical” foreign food isn’t a problem at all. There was an episode of the kids cartoon Doug from the early 90s where the plot was Doug’s “wild” Aunt who had just got done parachuting for her 50th birthday was taking him out to eat this new crazy food “sushi” and the entire episode was just Doug having terrible daydreams about the fish coming alive as he ate it and similar things. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/142 "2020-09-27T09:19:24Z")
I seem to recall Garfield cartoons in the 1980s depicting Abu Dhabi as a dusty, forlorn backwater just a few steps removed from the stone age, as opposed to the gleaming, modern metropolis populated by the ultra-rich that it is today. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/143 "2020-09-27T09:35:13Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Back in the 50s, there were a lot of jokes about someone turning over an item that they had just purchased, and being dismayed to see that it was stamped “Made in Japan.” Now being made in Japan is a mark of quality and coolness. Relevant scene from Back to the Future III: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/c1QcjsjjtRc/hqdefault.jpg "Back To The Future 3 - Japan") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1QcjsjjtRc) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/145 "2020-09-27T19:21:27Z")
wow so my 4th/5th grade teachers were told wrong and then they passed along the misinformation … ---
**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:** [September 27, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/146 "2020-09-27T19:49:54Z")
> [@Didi44](#): > > I was in and out of school after the 6th grade and people don’t get the reference when I say “I’m like Jethro, I have a 6th grade education!” _Beverly Hillbillies_ I believe the line is “I done grajeeated the eighth grade!” ---
**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:** [September 27, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/147 "2020-09-27T20:09:40Z")
‘That’s cuz I graj-jee-ated the sixth grade, and it only took three years.’ ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/148 "2020-09-27T21:31:30Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Lots of cartoons of the 40s had pop culture references that are lost today. Jerry Colonna was referred to a lot and the reference was already dated when I saw them in the 60s. Warner Brothers cartoons often referred to Greta Garbo’s big feet and lots of people today only have the vaguest idea about who she was. There were also many Hugh Herbert references. I remember being in grade school in the 1970s, and my school’s library having a number of joke books. A lot of those books had probably been there for 20+ years or, if newer, they were compilations of jokes considered suitable for children. Meaning clean jokes the compilers remembered. Unfortunately, a whole lot of those jokes were based on pop culture things from the '40s and '50s and just went right over my head. Like, what does the punchline, “Surly, with a fringe on top” mean to a 10-year-old in 1975? There have been a number of jokes that I read as a child, but didn’t understand until I was in my 30s or 40s and accidentally stumbled upon the original material the joke referenced. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/149 "2020-09-27T21:36:04Z")
> [@razordance](#): > > Actually, Corsica and Sardinia are variant names for the same place – you know, like Holland and the Netherlands, or China and Japan. I realize he’s gone, but . . . lolwut? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/150 "2020-09-27T21:37:16Z")
There used to be a thing where “oral sex” was, in itself, the punch-line, as if the very existence of such a thing was so astonishing, it made the joke funny. One example was a guy who had a cold sore on his lip, and the doctor told him it was syphilis. Ba-dum. That’s the whole joke. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/151 "2020-09-27T21:51:47Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > ‘That’s cuz I graj-jee-ated the sixth grade, and it only took three years.’ I’m smart. I finished this jigsaw puzzle in only three weeks and it said six months to a year on the box. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2020, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/152 "2020-09-27T21:53:35Z")
As opposed to herpes, like real cold sores? But yeah, there were a lot of jokes I heard as a kid that only made sense to someone who had a complete and absolute ignorance of everything relating to sex. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2020, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/153 "2020-09-27T22:15:54Z")
“Christine Jorgensen” was a big punchline in the 50s and 60s. I remember a Borscht Belt comedian who offered to sing a song about any celebrity shouted out by the audience and used her for a free space for any male celebrity who he didn’t have a song for. The name is meaningless to people today, and the reason for her notoriety is very commonplace. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/154 "2020-09-27T22:39:04Z")
It wasn’t just sitcoms. In the early 90s, SNL ran a mock commercial for McDonald’s “McSushi”. The comic idea behind the fake ad was the juxtaposition behind an exotic and trendy food like sushi showing up as an entree` on a fast-food menu. The thing is even when I saw the “McSushi” sketch, I didn’t think the reality was too far off. Granted, “McSushi” is not available at Mickey D’s (for now) but you’ve been able to find sushi for sale just about everywhere else for some time now. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/155 "2020-09-27T22:40:16Z")
A joke in Woody Allen’s _Sleeper_ that I’m sure no one gets today is that the old world was destroyed “when a man named Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear weapon.” [Albert Shanker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Shanker) was the combative leader of the New York City Teacher’s Union and led several strikes in the late 1960s. The reference was dated within only a few years. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/156 "2020-09-27T22:45:15Z")
I read this one recently: “I called the Tinnitus hotline. It just goes on ringing and ringing” Are hotlines still a thing? If they are they don’t ring I’m sure. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/157 "2020-09-27T22:56:10Z")
I don’t know if Abu Dhabi was ever shown–it was just a suitably distant place for Garfield to want to mail Nermal. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2020, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/158 "2020-09-27T22:59:59Z")
I was going to say that jokes are always dated, because they get passed down from a generation before… **But I swear, the entire concept of “jokes” is dated.** Cite: I slouched into class with a sinus infection, and told the students “I feel like crap. I need a joke. Extra credit to anyone who can tell me a joke…” These were sharp college students, but they just looked at each other blankly, with mutterings like “I don’t know any jokes?” “Who tells jokes?” “My gramps tells jokes.” One kid googled “Dad Jokes” and read a couple off her phone. _Sigh, not the same…_ I switched to “Ok, somebody tell me something funny that happened…” That worked. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/159 "2020-09-27T23:03:53Z")
You may be right. Standup comedians don’t tell jokes anymore, and haven’t for decades. They make observations. The Henny Youngman (Who’s that?) style of one-liner is long gone. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/160 "2020-09-27T23:08:06Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Are hotlines still a thing? If they are they don’t ring I’m sure. Still Hotlines still exist and yes they still ring. I have used them and I have staffed them. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/161 "2020-09-27T23:22:12Z")
Yeah nowadays when I hear hotlines it’s in the context of “Posion Control Hotline” or “Suicide Prevention Hotline”. 900 numbers or the like jokes however are super dated, the idea that you called a phone number and for $2 a minute you could hear the latest sports scores, Freddy Krugger recommending you horror films, or even just get the local weather. Of course Simpsons made the best joke ever about this, where Homer dials a 1-900 Sports Betting number only for the man on the phone to speak incredibly slowly and go on random tangents before telling you his picks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466.md?page=9)