WWhaat?...I don't get it!

Anstapa · Post by **Anstapa** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 12:07 pm

From the BBC:

Why Grumpy old men don't laugh at your jokes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6897023.stm

Anstapa

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 12:26 pm

One such joke in the test was: "A businessman is riding the subway after a hard day at the office. A young man sits down next to him and says, 'Call me a doctor, call me a doctor'. The businessman asks, 'What's the matter, are you sick?'.

The participants were expected to correctly identify the punch line as: "The young man says, 'I just graduated from medical school'." .........

He said: "Many jokes require us to simultaneously have two ideas in mind, such as two meanings of the word 'call' in the example joke, and older people may find it difficult to do this."

After I read the explanation about the word "call" and its two meanings, and pondered it all over for awhile, I did finally get the joke. I have never gotten jokes very well. Perhaps some elderly people do have some special problems, but many seem to be considered okay enough in the head to serve in the very highest offices, etc. What happened to the idea that you get smarter as you get older? That experience makes a difference? That your intellect doesn't go downhill when you get older? I think older people themselves are brainwashed into thinking their minds are no good. The number of people that found it amazing that I could study Latin at the age of 55 just astounded me. When I told them it was hard, as I believe any student in my class would have told them, they told me it must be my age. I feel I can think better and harder now than ever. I'm not a genius, but at least I can tell when I'm really trying. Okay, obviously I can step off my soap box now

.

But he warned that if the jokes used in the study used modern humour, then the younger people might find them funnier and understand them better anyway which would affect the results.

Yes, there is that.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 12:36 pm

The email observations were remarkably pertinent. To wit, "we do see the joke, we just don't think it's funny"; and "The older we get, the greater the chance that we've heard it before".

The one about "Call me a doctor" is a variation on the old "call me a cab!"

Here it is (again).

Grumpy old man exiting from his club, to the doorman: "Call me a Cab!"

Doorman promptly: "you are a cab, sir!"

<brief pause>

Doorman apologetically: "Allow me to say, sir, I'm grateful you had the goodness not to ask me to call you a hansom cab."

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 12:53 pm

I would have to agree with IB. The article does not really provide enough information on the reaction of the seniors in the study; whether they caught the double entendre or not versus found it funny or not. My reaction at the first line of, "Call me a doctor. Call me a doctor," would be to reply with a bit of a Bronx Jewish accent, "Okay, so you're a doctor, already."

Training.

djm

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 1:01 pm

"... we do see the joke, we just don't think it's funny"; and "The older we get, the greater the chance that we've heard it before".

... and don't find it funny.

Ever so much more simple and to the point than my long winded version. Thanks!

Caroluna · Post by **Caroluna** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 2:09 pm

from the above link

My paternal grandfather is over 70 and has a sense of humor infamous in its ability to make people groan with annoyance.... but his cognitive abilities in humor seem to be undeterred... unfortunately.

The following link is a collection of Dad jokes, many of them crude, annoying or not really funny, but there's some good ones mixed in there.
It does seem to be humor from a different generation. I can remember my dad saying some of these.

http://www.b3ta.com/questions/dadjokes/page13/

In response to the standard "how are you today", my father (to this day) answers "finer than frog's hair".

When my sister and I finally decided we wouldn't let it embarrass us anymore he kept doing it just for the utter look of confusion on the asker's face.

(also he made us dinner every night while growing up. About halfway through the meal he would exclaim "a fine meal. Couldn't have made it better myself")

Whenever my Dad was going out somewhere, I'd ask,"Where are you going, Dad?"
Without fail, his response was,
"Crazy...wanna come?"

He thinks it is the height of surreal comedy that puts him on a par with the Pythons and the Milligans of this world. See what you think:

What did Santa say to the reindeer on Christmas Eve?

"Off we go then!"

I must admit I chuckle at it more than I used to. Another sign I am turning into him.

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:44 pm

Reminds me of this.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:17 pm

It's entirely possible that after a lifetime of experience older people may be less inclined to laugh. They may get the joke all too well.
--David B. Wright, Wellfleet, MA,USA

I think this hits the nail on the head.

Too much humor keys around the idea of someone's discomfort or even pain. I am not an "older person," yet, having only recently started counting my years into my forties, but I already know that I've seen enough discomfort and pain, and it's really still just as distasteful when the comedian makes fun of themselves as it is when they make fun of others: I look and often wonder how much of their joke is really a joke.

Good comedy is damn hard, and folks who can create it and present it are really very rare.

Also, past a certain age jokes which depend upon sex, nudity, or foul language really no longer work. Past a certain age sex and nudity are no longer embarrassing, and by then you've heard just about every bit of profanity that exists. So jokes which depend on their ability to shock the listener just no longer work past a certain age.

I think perhaps what this study really shows is comedy is harder than a lot of folks think it is.

As far as drawing age-related conclusions, how's this one? "Many young people aren't half as funny as they think they are."

--James

Caroluna · Post by **Caroluna** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:13 pm

This was so good I just had to put it in this thread. Sorry if OT.

The neighbor was trimming tree branches today and accidentally knocked down a nest of mourning doves. He found one chick, huddled on the ground, dehydrated and too weak to walk or fly. So I'll do some of my baby bird rearing and then get him back to his parents ASAP. But in the meantime of course he needs a name. I decided on Toppo.

As in, Top O' the Mournin' Dove

Pretty good for an old lady, huh?

I have a good friend of a similar age who also has these flashes of brilliance. He is quite the wit. But only about half the time.

OK you guys can go back to your serious discussion of humor now

edited to add this:

peeplj wrote:Good comedy is damn hard, and folks who can create it and present it are really very rare.

Yup, I know. Sorry, doing the best I can

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:16 pm

Caroluna wrote:
Whenever my Dad was going out somewhere, I'd ask,"Where are you going, Dad?"
Without fail, his response was,
"Crazy...wanna come?"

HA! I say that one to my kids all of the time

Alas, they don't seem to share my humor and rarely tell me they want to go too.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:49 pm

While I appreciate what some of you are saying about a change in what you might find humorous (or not so) at a more mature stage of life,
This, I believe, is what's actually being shown by the study:

The report's authors said the results suggested that age-related declines in short-term memory, abstract reasoning and moving between different thought trains may affect humour comprehension in older people.

Author Professor Brian Carpenter said: "This wasn't a study about what people find funny. It was a study about whether they get what's supposed to be funny.

"There are basic cognitive mechanisms to understanding what's going on in a joke.

"Older adults, because they may have deficits in some of those cognitive areas, may have a harder time understanding what a joke is about."

The difference between the young group and the over 65's, in terms of their abilities to "get" the humor, were in the 6-14% range, which is probably exactly the percent of the older group who is going to have experienced some--even if slight-- onset of cognitive impairment.

As I mentioned in a discussion elsewhere on this topic--If you ever witness this inability to "get" jokes in someone you know who formerly could, you'll know exactly what this is about.

s1m0n · Post by **s1m0n** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 6:15 pm

I got the doctor "joke", ie, I saw the double meaning right away, but I don't think it's at all funny. That's a pun I'd think up and discard due to severe suckage.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:05 pm

emmline wrote:While I appreciate what some of you are saying about a change in what you might find humorous (or not so) at a more mature stage of life,
This, I believe, is what's actually being shown by the study:
The report's authors said the results suggested that age-related declines in short-term memory, abstract reasoning and moving between different thought trains may affect humour comprehension in older people.

Author Professor Brian Carpenter said: "This wasn't a study about what people find funny. It was a study about whether they get what's supposed to be funny.

"There are basic cognitive mechanisms to understanding what's going on in a joke.

"Older adults, because they may have deficits in some of those cognitive areas, may have a harder time understanding what a joke is about."
The difference between the young group and the over 65's, in terms of their abilities to "get" the humor, were in the 6-14% range, which is probably exactly the percent of the older group who is going to have experienced some--even if slight-- onset of cognitive impairment.

As I mentioned in a discussion elsewhere on this topic--If you ever witness this inability to "get" jokes in someone you know who formerly could, you'll know exactly what this is about.

This makes sense. The things that in each of us are genetically disposed to go wrong start going wrong when we get older (if we are lucky). So if one is destined to have cognitive difficulties or illnesses involving those difficulties it would make sense that they start showing up when one is older. It really isn't saying that all older people lose these abilities, just that some do. Just as other older people lose other abilities or develop problems. I did sort of over-react there I believe.

Charlene · Post by **Charlene** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:52 pm

When I would ask my father what he thought would happen in a certain situation and he didn't know, he'd usually say "That's like it says on the sign at the graveyard - remains to be seen."

Or if I said "Hey!" he'd say, "That's the first stage of horse sh*t." (my mother thought that was very vulgar).

I don't like it when people feel that they have to swear every other word to tell a joke. Last week we had free tickets to a comedy show. The first guy was mildly amusing in spots, although he did swear a bit. The main act couldn't put together one sentence without saying "sh*t" or "f***" and after about 15 minutes I walked out. I used to like Gallagher until I saw him live, and with no network censor to stop him, he was crude. Even when we saw Jerry Seinfeld live he used foul language in a few jokes.

/begin soapbox rant/ My feeling is, if you use such language in your everyday speech, what do you do when you REALLY get angry? Take a gun and blow them away? /end soapbox rant/

BTW, I'm 52 so I guess that puts me in with the old folks.

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 7:04 am

Cynth wrote:
emmline wrote:While I appreciate what some of you are saying about a change in what you might find humorous (or not so) at a more mature stage of life,
This, I believe, is what's actually being shown by the study:
The report's authors said the results suggested that age-related declines in short-term memory, abstract reasoning and moving between different thought trains may affect humour comprehension in older people.

Author Professor Brian Carpenter said: "This wasn't a study about what people find funny. It was a study about whether they get what's supposed to be funny.

"There are basic cognitive mechanisms to understanding what's going on in a joke.

"Older adults, because they may have deficits in some of those cognitive areas, may have a harder time understanding what a joke is about."
The difference between the young group and the over 65's, in terms of their abilities to "get" the humor, were in the 6-14% range, which is probably exactly the percent of the older group who is going to have experienced some--even if slight-- onset of cognitive impairment.

As I mentioned in a discussion elsewhere on this topic--If you ever witness this inability to "get" jokes in someone you know who formerly could, you'll know exactly what this is about.
This makes sense. The things that in each of us are genetically disposed to go wrong start going wrong when we get older (if we are lucky). So if one is destined to have cognitive difficulties or illnesses involving those difficulties it would make sense that they start showing up when one is older. It really isn't saying that all older people lose these abilities, just that some do. Just as other older people lose other abilities or develop problems. I did sort of over-react there I believe.

I think that culture has an effect as well. Each generation has its own frame of reference, and what passes for a joke in one may not be understood by another simply because the terms are different.

Also, I know that I , and I've observed it in others, have far less humor available to tap when stressed, and older folks, knowing stress rather intimately, may just not be 'in the mood'.