Newsweek's Boomer Humor theory

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on February 14th, 2007

David Noonan of Newsweek has come up with some sort of Unified Humor Theory to explain why we laugh at what we laugh at… “We” being Baby Boomers.

None of this is chiseled in stone, of course. Jon Stewart, born in 1962, is technically a boomer, but “The Daily Show” (which echoes and improves on “SNL’s” 31-year-old “Weekend Update”), can hardly be considered boomer humor. And there is plenty of so-called humor produced by boomers that, well, we would prefer not to think about, including some unmentionable Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy movies. (“The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” anyone?)

It’s a long article, with some (but not a lot) of reference to standup. (Not enough, if you ask us.)

We’ve been telling any club owner who’ll listen (which, admittedly, isn’t all that many!) that they should court the boomers. They’re the ones who made comedy in the 1980’s what it was (and what it is today), and they’re also the ones who now have platinum MasterCards! We’ve been encountering them in the clubs a lot lately and they all say the same thing: It’s been a long time since I laughed that hard… and I usta go out to the comedy clubs a lot in the 80’s!

Welcome back!