Comedy: Humor and Age

Comedy: August 12, 2026 Issue [#13891]


 


Humor and Age
       Editor: cathartes02
                   More Newsletters By This Editor  


Table of Contents
1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions


About This Newsletter
Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough.
          —Groucho Marx

You can't stop getting older; you just have to keep going and laugh a lot.
          —Anita Dobson

As I'm getting older, I'm enjoying my vices so much more because I feel like I've deserved them.
          —Brooke Shields

Letter from the editor
Ever hear of GOMS?

Neither have I, because I just made it up (though it's entirely certain that someone else made it up independently and first). It's Grumpy Old Man Syndrome. It's unrelated to GOLS, Grumpy Old Lady Syndrome, because the two of them want nothing to do with each other.

Thing is, unlike death, GOMS/GOLS isn't a sure thing. And there's a simple way to prevent it: find everything amusing.

In fact, the older I get, the more amusing I find things. While certainly some things hack me right off, hacked-off isn't a constant state of being for me. But one thing I've noticed from my perch on the precarious end of the tree branch: what we find humorous changes throughout our lives.

Kids, for example, find fart jokes to be the absolute pinnacle of comedy. This is not an exaggeration or an unwarranted generalization; every kid everywhere thinks that farts are hilarious.

Then you get a bit older, and your sense of humor matures with you. There's no generalization I can make about this life stage; we all have (or had, or will have) our preferences, be it slapstick, dark humor, one-liners, whatever. For me, it was puns. My father, when I was a kid and before he got GOMS, once told me that puns are the lowest form of humor. I was like, "No, Father. Puns are a sure sign of an agile mind and an active intelligence willing to make connections between concepts that lesser minds find incompatible. They are, contrary to your unfounded assertion, indeed the highest, not the lowest, form of humor. Fart jokes are the lowest form of humor."

So he farted and walked away, giving himself the last laugh.

Anyway, point is, whatever genre of comedy makes you laugh when you're neither young nor old, when you do get old, you mature even further, grow wiser, reflect back on a life well-lived, and find fart jokes funny.


Editor's Picks
Some funnies:
 Bad News  [E]
Some jobs come with a rough first day. Flash Fiction.
 
The Cautionary Tale of Club Soda  [E]
It's just a silly morality story.
Take It Back, Please!  [E]
A preposterous situation at the big box store
 
 I See the Future  [ASR]
Winner! Daily Flash Fiction 1/28/23 W/C 294
 Overexposed  [E]
A man tries to explain his nakedness to a police officer. A Dialogue 500 challenge.
 Pizzas, Jungles, and Buddhist Monks  [E]
Technology at its finest.....
by earthvillager
 
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Word from Writing.Com
Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
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Ask & Answer
Last time, in "The Heat Is On" , I talked about the gloriously oppressive heat experienced by much of the Northern Hemisphere.

fivesixer: That Sue Monk Kidd quote!! Perfect!! My favorite saying, when someone who complains about summer heat after whining all winter in NY: "It's not the heat; it's the stupidity." At least I don't hafta shovel it!!

          I hate shoveling snow. I once got a heart attack after shoveling snow. Yes, I am a cliché.


beholden: Thank you very much for including my story, Repetition, in your Editor's Picks section.

beholden: Thank you very much for including my story, Repetition, in your Editor's Picks section.

          I don't know if you intended to send this twice, which you did, but either way, that's comedy gold right there.


jtpete86: I prefer cold. I can always put on more clothes. In the summers heat, I can only get so naked. The neighbors complain when I am out riding the lawnmower.

          And here I thought I laid that old chestnut to rest for the final time in that editorial. Oh, well, the battle never ends.

So that's it for me for August! See you next month. Until then,
LAUGH ON!!!

 

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