A new study backs up the idea that older folks just don’t think things are as funny as the whippersnappers:
It’s no laughing matter: a new study suggests older adults have a harder time getting jokes as they age. The research indicates that because older adults may have greater difficulty with cognitive flexibility, abstract reasoning and short-term memory, they also have greater difficulty with tests of humor comprehension.
Researchers at Washington University tested about 40 healthy adults over age 65 and 40 undergraduate students with exercises in which they had to complete jokes and stories. Participants also had to choose the correct punch line for verbal jokes and select the funny ending to series of cartoon panels.
Although the evidence sounds compelling, the cartoon exercise involved finding a funny ending to a Ferd’nand comic strip. Why didn’t they just make the old-timers rhyme “month” and “orange” while they were at it?
Well maybe us ‘older’ folks don’t think new jokes are very funny. I myself don’t find much to laugh at in comics, tv, or film anymore. Anyone ever thought that the older you get the more you’ve seen. After all just how many time is a fart joke funny when you are 55.
Althought watching the news does make me feel like I am watching a ‘looney tunes’ cartoon as a kid again.