Anachronistic Phrases and Jokes

[airbolt]

I wonder how many sayings and / or Jokes become out of date due to changes in the world . A joke my dad used to tell ( often! ) was :

Conductor : " Pass farther down the Bus! "

Passenger " He's not my father , he's my Grandfather ! "

Not only a fairly tame word play but not exactly " one for the teenagers " as Bus Conductors went out at least 20 years ago !

Does anyone have any good examples of phrases/jokes that have lost their meaning?

[Peter Pedant]

Ladies first even before the bull rushes?

its a modern free - for - all nowadays.

Age before beauty?

It's a free-for-all nowadays

Work? I can sit and look at it for hours

No work and high unemploument nowadays

[Aschenbach]

I think of Des O'Connor as an anachronistic joke.

I'd say books like Three Men In A Boat and Diary of A Nobody have old fashioned humour that is more quaint than out-dated. Can't think of specific phrases/ jokes like your example.

[Ouisch]

"He doesn't know sh*t from Shinola!"  They haven't made Shinola shoe polish in many years, so younger people, if they ever hear this phrase, have no clue as to what it means.

The same goes for "He's got more (problems, money, whatever) than Carter's has Liver Pills!"

[Glossopswift]

If anyone younger than about 30 were to tell me a story that I considered to be a bit of a fib, I'm sure they'd be completely lost if I were to rub my chin and say 'Jimmy Hill'.

[miss_chase]

I told a group of 15 year old students the best joke according to Virgin radio (i think) to be met with blank stares...

I flew with BA last year, it was terrible. He kept saying 'i ain't getting on no plane, fool'.

cue blank looks. they have never heard of BA Barracus (A team) - way to make me feel old!!

[Peter Pedant]

oh,

In the Cancer ward - did you come here to die?

No I came here yesterday ! (1932)

or

why are the Japanese like interior decorators?

Because they're plastering the Chinese.

You need to know that the Japanese invaded China in the thirties and by 1939 occupied 25% of the Chinese land area.

[bernardo]

I told a group of 15 year old students the best joke according to Virgin radio (i think) to be met with blank stares...

I flew with BA last year, it was terrible. He kept saying 'i ain't getting on no plane, fool'.

cue blank looks. they have never heard of BA Barracus (A team) - way to make me feel old!!

Er... explain please?  Who (or what) is (or was) (or are (or were)) "BA Barracus" and/or "a team"?  Were you expecting us to have any reaction to this "joke", other than blank stares?  (I am 36).

[Ouisch]

I told a group of 15 year old students the best joke according to Virgin radio (i think) to be met with blank stares...

I flew with BA last year, it was terrible. He kept saying 'i ain't getting on no plane, fool'.

cue blank looks. they have never heard of BA Barracus (A team) - way to make me feel old!!

Er... explain please?  Who (or what) is (or was) (or are (or were)) "BA Barracus" and/or "a team"?  Were you expecting us to have any reaction to this "joke", other than blank stares?  (I am 36).



 The A-Team was a TV show in the 1980s starring Mr. T as a character named Sgt. Bosco Albert "B.A." Baracus.

[gastwo]

Thanks to Ouisch I now know what  Shinola is.

Always wondered... (and I'm well past 50!)

[miss_chase]

it isn't my joke!!!!

but yes BA Barracus is from the A Team - 80s show. Otherwise known as Mr T. Lots of gold chains. That character on Little Britain will mean nothing to you then either i guess...

[bernardo]

Er... "that character on Little Britain"?  Who is or was he or she?  I have never watched Little Britain.

[Thebutcher]

2 old ladies have the phopographer around to take their picture. Dressed in best bib and tucker, they sit still for the man to get set up with his tripod and black hood.
"What's taking so long?" says one.
"He has to focus" replies the other.
"What?.....Both of us?"

I have 2 more of these from my late father. Probably from the 1930s.
Best wishes,
Bill