Why is it difficult to tell a joke to senior citizens?

Why is it difficult to tell a joke to senior citizens?

Many speakers, lecturers and leaders find it difficult to tell a joke to senior citizens. They want to utilise their time and opportunity to fullest by interspersing their talk with jokes. The idea is to break the boredom of a heavy or serious topic, draw attention of the audience back from sleeping and to ensure better audience engagement. However, senior citizens as a group are a difficult one to tackle. Jokes do not cut ice with them easily. Why so?

 We may think of several reasons. One is that they have attended lot of meetings and might have already heard the joke in some form or the other. Many seniors are hard of hearing and cannot catch the joke quickly, if the speaker is not careful. Most of the elderly population have gone through a lot of trials and tribulations – they have no zest in living and have ‘given up’ laughing altogether; they have, like they say about frozen shoulders, frozen faces. They simply cannot laugh even if they try to and even when they know that laughing is easier than other facial poses.

 Another aspect contributing to lesser appreciation of humour among the elderly population is that their cognitive functions decline and are unable ‘understand’ a joke. The joke may be situational, language-oriented or culture or community dependent.  Placing oneself in the required context in which the joke is told is necessary to value a joke. This is difficult for seniors in a mixed, heterogenous groups.   

 The speaker may not be adept in saying or sharing jokes. He may start off with a warning: “Let me tell you a joke”. He wants to ensure clapping when he pauses after telling the joke but makes an unintended pause midway and some persons start clapping, without understanding the situation and others join him spontaneously.  Other speakers may make a mess of it by narrating a joke monotonously almost in soporific manner. Even well delivered jokes cannot wake up people who start sleeping when jokes are told.  Some speakers start dissecting their own jokes with great analytical skills that the real charm of the joke vanishes. And the elderly participants are too sensitive to tolerate inept speakers.

 Some of the assumptions I have made in this write-up may be wrong. If you really care to dig deeper, read: G Greengross – Humour and Aging IN Gerontology Vol 59 Issue 5 August 2013 https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/351005

 My purpose is  just to stir your interest  on this topic of humour and the elderly!

                                                           ====================

Image taken from pexels.com