BBC News has a brief entry about some research on the effects of aging on the sense of humour:
Grumpy old men may not be able to help it, as age could affect their sense of humour, scientists have found.
A study by Washington University in St Louis found older people find it harder to understand jokes than students.
The authors say the finding should be taken seriously as laughing has been linked to health benefits such as boosting circulation.
The findings were published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.
Of course, before you start blaming age for not getting the joke, you might want to consider that this wasn't exactly the definitive study: it only tested 80 people in total, and for that size of sample a 6% variance isn't statistically significant. (Not to mention that — I guess I'm showing my age here — the joke they used for the tests isn't particularly funny.)
H/T to Ian Guild.
Posted by Nicholas at July 13, 2007 09:38 AMChoose the correct punchline for the following joke:Posted by: Jon at July 13, 2007 11:43 AM"A businessman is riding the subway after a hard day at the office. A young man sits down next to him and says, 'Call me a doctor, call me a doctor'. The businessman asks, 'What's the matter, are you sick?'What is the correct punchline? (a) "The young man says, 'I just graduated from medical school'." (b) "The young man says, 'I just got my PhD in 17th Century French poh-etry!'." (c) "The young man says, 'I am a British doctor! A British doctor from the broad strata of society! Death to the infidels! Death to the infidels!!' [Young man detonates]"
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