13 Biting Dark Humor Jokes About the ‘Good Ol’ Days’
“Man, weren’t things just better way back when?”
Well, no. Unless you’re white, straight and male, things really weren’t. Actually, the past wasn’t that great for white straight guys either. Nostalgia is a nasty drug, and no one knows that better than comedy writers and stand-ups who will happily point out that the “good ol’ days” weren’t really that good ol’ after all.
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To that end, here are some of the funniest jokes, sketches and bits that point out how terrible the past was and how much better we have it today...
Cristela Alonzo Wonders When the Good Ol’ Days Actually Existed
“You know what pissed me off? When people said, ‘We need to get back to the good old days.’ You ever notice it’s only white people saying that shit? Brown people, when was our ‘good old days’? I’m Latina, when was our ‘good old days’? When JLo became Selena? That’s what we get?”
Tom Segura Prefers the Current Accessibility of Porn
In 1997, Segura would be the point man to get pornography for his friends from liquor stores because 56K modem buffering could really interrupt self-pleasuring sessions.
‘Family Guy’ on The Roaring Twenties
With the power of music, Family Guy breaks down why the 1920s really wasn’t the best time to be alive.
Wanda Sykes Is Nostalgic for 2019
After all that’s happened since, Sykes really wishes we were back in 2019 when her previous comedy special, Not Normal, felt normal by comparison.
The Barbie Museum (Not That Barbie)
In Rat Race, Jon Lovitz’s family asks him to pull over to attend a museum waxing for a simpler time. Unfortunately, it isn’t a museum about the history of a commercially successful toy doll.
Jen Kirkman on How Children Were Raised in the 1970s
Kirkman’s mom gave her the small instructional page the hospital gave her when Kirkman was born. Kirkman shared its 1970s parenting “wisdom” on stage for the comedy special Just Keep Livin’?.
Fry’s (Supposed) Grandfather
When Fry and the Planet Express crew go back in time on Futurama, he accidentally meets his grandfather and tries to keep him alive so that he’ll exist in the future. But he inadvertently exposes him to every single life-threatening issue of the times, including nuclear bomb testing.
Christina P. Wants to Be an ‘80s Mom
“I want to be an ’80s mom. They had it the best. There used to be a commercial that came on at 10 o’clock at night that said, ‘It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?’ They had to remind bitches they even had kids!”
Dana Carvey as the Grumpy Old Man
Carvey frequently appeared on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update as an uptight geriatric who would prefer things return to how they used to be — “and you’d like it!”
Women Working in 1950s
When Family Guy’s Peter needs to retake personnel training, he watches a video regarding women in the workplace… from 1956.
Tom Papa Thinks Hospitals Are Better Today
“Your life expectancy in the good old days? Twenty-eight years old! Hospitals were a nightmare. All they did was cut your leg off. Didn’t matter what you had. A broken arm? The flu? You walked in, you hopped back out!”
Bill Burr and Conan O’Brien Reminisce About Growing Up in the 1970s
On Conan, Burr discussed his cartoon F Is for Family and reminisced with O’Brien about how brutal childhood was growing up in the 1970s. Have you ever gotten misty-eyed when remembering rocks being thrown at you while tree climbing as a kid?
Key & Peele on Civil War Reenactments
Key and Peele provide an overlooked detail that those who positively wax poetic about the South’s Confederate history tend to brush past. You know, the racist stuff.