Comedy/sitcom jokes that people won't "get" anymore

[landtuna]

I just finished watching "Cold Turkey" (1971) - talk about a movie that youngsters wouldn't "get".

There were references to Walter Cronkite, Huntley-Brinkley, Nixon and a whole host of products no longer being made (is Time magazine even published any longer?).

Even so, it is one of the funniest movies ever made and my 20-something kids laughed themselves silly at the parts they did "get".

 

[LKellerIII]

FYI - Time Magazine is being published, though it's probably on life support. I subscribe to it because they've priced it so low, it's almost free.

It was Newsweek that stopped publishing in paper, but they're now online - owned by the Daily Beast.

 

[crainbebo]

I just finished watching "Cold Turkey" (1971) - talk about a movie that youngsters wouldn't "get".

There were references to Walter Cronkite, Huntley-Brinkley, Nixon and a whole host of products no longer being made (is Time magazine even published any longer?).

Even so, it is one of the funniest movies ever made and my 20-something kids laughed themselves silly at the parts they did "get".

Time Magazine is still published weekly.
Most of today's kids don't even remember Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News. How time flies. Some probably know Nixon from president lessons at school, but probably not too many.

-crainbebo

 

[rnigma1]

And "Cold Turkey" was perhaps the first film to feature a Randy Newman song.

 

[visaman]

The Dean Martin show had some dated material. If a young person saw it today, would he remember Dean as a boozer/girl chasing celebrity, movie star, or Jerry Lewis' comedy partner?

It depends on your definition of "Young People", I am 48, and barely remember him for his weekly roasts. Of course I am strange in that I watch old movies, and heck, I even watch Lawrence Welk reruns on PBS!

 

[visaman]

As a fan of Conan, John Stewart and Steven Colbert, it's interesting how many dated references they make. All three of them are 50, or a bit younger, but seem to know a great deal about post-WW2 America in the 40s and 50s, before they were born. They are all either students of history, or have some baby boomer writers on staff.

Jon Stewart just turned 50, and Stephen Colbert is my age, 48, and yes we all are Baby Boomers/Gen Xers!

 

[onairb]

Any joke referring to 'Fibber McGee's closet'.

 

[Markxxx]

Any joke referring to 'Fibber McGee's closet'.

Or Burns and Allen's Glendale. CA

Or Jack Benny's Studebaker

Or WWII jokes about rationing

George) Look Gracie we only have an "A" card. That means one can only drive when absolutely necessary. Things like driving the man of the house to work.

Gracie) Gee we're not gonna use any gas are we?

 

[Jimme]

1.) On "Gimme Me A Break", Nell Carter made frequent referenes to wanting to knock the boots, in one way or another, with Billy Dee Williams. We haven't heard much from Mr. Williams rcently.

2.) Any show where people argue about what they want to want on the television and/or they all sit together watching one television show.

 

[landtuna]

Any joke referring to 'Fibber McGee's closet'.

All anyone had to do to put my old man in stitches was to mention Fibber McGee's closet. He would laugh so hard we all thought he was having a heart attack.

Perhaps one of the reasons I also laughed was that I had this "radio" image of the closet that any TV program couldn't possibly equal. ;D

 

[landtuna]

Or Jack Benny's Studebaker

I thought I was a pretty good historian on Jack Benny but I remember only the Maxwell, not a Studebaker.

 

[RBW]

I used to read MAD magazine, both new and back issues, and I saw a number of jokes from the mid-70s about Rodney Allen Rippy. I think my mom was the one who explained about his Jack in the Box ads. I'm 39, so didn't see them originally, but I remember seeing him in an ad in the late '80s. I also saw him in a Six Million Dollar Man rerun, so I at least was familiar with him.

"The Odd Couple" featured Rippy in a 1975 epsiode about a rent strike...claiming that little "Rippy" owned Felix & Oscar's NYC apartment building. This also brings to mind a few other Odd Couple moments, where they'd make jokes (when blacks were in a scene) referencing a fondness for watermelon. The audience roared. Can't imagine that happening today! (unless I misunderstood the reference in the first place)

 

[Ultimajock]

And "Cold Turkey" was perhaps the first film to feature a Randy Newman song.

...the third. He'd contributed songs to the Oscar-nominated The Lively Set in 1964 and Sinatra's Tony Rome in 1967 before Cold Turkey...

 

[KyDXIn]

Or Jack Benny's Studebaker

I thought I was a pretty good historian on Jack Benny but I remember only the Maxwell, not a Studebaker.

Here's a clip! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyoDhOrmIAo

 

[KyDXIn]

The Dean Martin show had some dated material. If a young person saw it today, would he remember Dean as a boozer/girl chasing celebrity, movie star, or Jerry Lewis' comedy partner?

It depends on your definition of "Young People", I am 48, and barely remember him for his weekly roasts.

I think some of the best parts of the Dean Martin shows were those with Louisville's Foster Brooks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jNNFqQODKE

 

[onairb]

Today's younger PC crowd wouldn't like/'get' Brooks' drunk humor; although another large segment of young folk might like it, but would consider it tame.

Re: Billy Dee Williams, he was a running gag of Florence's on The Jeffersons, and actually appeared in the flesh once. In a similar vein, Cozi TV recently aired early 'Six Million Dollar Man', in which two European nuns working at a mission in Africa liked Dale Robertson-one was 'president of the international Dale Robertson fan club', and claimed to have 'seen every episode of Tales of Wells Fargo twice.' After helping out in the adventure 'just like Dale', they came to the US, and Steve arranged for them to meet Robertson(cameoing as himself). How long has it been since Wells Fargo aied widely in syndication(has it even been on the Encore Western channel?) Younger viewers of '6 Mil' also wouldn't know how Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett were a big deal back then.

 

[rnigma1]

And "Cold Turkey" was perhaps the first film to feature a Randy Newman song.

...the third. He'd contributed songs to the Oscar-nominated The Lively Set in 1964 and Sinatra's Tony Rome in 1967 before Cold Turkey...

Randy's been around a lot longer than I thought, though I knew that his uncles Alfred and Lionel Newman ran the 20th Century Fox music department for decades.

 

[EZway2go]

Today's younger PC crowd wouldn't like/'get' Brooks' drunk humor; although another large segment of young folk might like it, but would consider it tame.

Funny you should mention that. By the same token, I find there's a lot on the air now that I don't get. I just attribute it to the younger writers of today who grew up on shows like Beavis & Butthead. What they might consider "cool" or edgy sometimes goes right over my head—and some of the "humor" I don't think is funny at all. Oh well... they certainly aren't writing for me, that's for sure.

 

[landtuna]

Or Jack Benny's Studebaker

I thought I was a pretty good historian on Jack Benny but I remember only the Maxwell, not a Studebaker.

Here's a clip! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyoDhOrmIAo

That was a Stude? It didn't look like the old Maxwell.

But did you notice the same cars passing on the street in the background?

 

[onairb]

Today's younger PC crowd wouldn't like/'get' Brooks' drunk humor; although another large segment of young folk might like it, but would consider it tame.

Funny you should mention that. By the same token, I find there's a lot on the air now that I don't get. I just attribute it to the younger writers of today who grew up on shows like Beavis & Butthead. What they might consider "cool" or edgy sometimes goes right over my head—and some of the "humor" I don't think is funny at all. Oh well... they certainly aren't writing for me, that's for sure.

"Cool, edgy" humor is only funny to people who place a lot of importance on being 'cool and edgy'...not to mention 'hip' and 'ironic'(a word that lost all meaning when everyone tried too hard to be ironic, and forgot what it meant).