That’s what my friend said when I told her I had had a mimosa (or two) with my meal earlier in the day. I’m not sure why mimosas remind my friend of old women, and neither does my friend, but this is the same friend who told me we would make “good old ladies” when we went to play Bingo together the other week.
In my class on aging we’ve talked a lot about stereotypes regarding aging. There are certainly the negative stereotypes: decline, sickness, poor health, conservatism, not being with the times, etc.. But there are also some positive associations: retirement, spending time with family, humor, and– what I find surprising and somewhat contradictory– happiness.
Like if you google image “old people,” this is what comes up:
Google Image search “old people “
And look at the first suggestion google gives you! “Funny.” And if you scroll right, there’s a “Meme” suggestion. These memes both make fun of old people, like this one (that plays on the stereotype that elderly people don’t understand technology and the image of old women– especially grandmothers– always baking recipes):
And show a certain reverence for the elderly (while still using humor), like this one:
But what does it mean for a certain demographic to be used as a form of humor? We had had a discussion about this in class the other day when we watched a video about a man who goes around the country and interviews elderly people, and then sets these interviews to music. This one older woman he was interviewing asked him why he does this, and when he said “Just to get to know people,” she blatantly replied with “Well that’s not very interesting.” And we all laughed.
So why do we find elderly people so funny? Part of me is tempted to go do a bunch of research on our cultural values and practices concerning humor, but keeping in mind this is a blog and I want to finish this post before my class in 20 minutes, I’ll just give my own thoughts.
To me, laughing at an older woman who says “that’s not very interesting” often demonstrates that we are not taking her seriously. How would we respond to someone younger saying the same thing? A powerful businessman? I’d probably see him as pompous and rude, not as charming and adorable.
It’s like laughing at a woman who’s angry just because she’s on her period, or pregnant, or going through menopause– or even if she’s not, turning it into a joke (“What, are you on your period? Hah!). It invalidates what this person is feeling, and the person laughing implies that the person-being-laughed-at’s thoughts aren’t as valuable as the laughing-person’s own. If that makes sense.
Things are often humorous because they don’t match our expectations– so perhaps that’s why an old woman being rude or old women smoking weed (below) is so hilarious. But what does it say about us that we have these expectations and stereotypes in the first place? And what does that do socially to the person being stereotyped?
Anyway, I’ll leave you with this video that’s trending on BuzzFeed right now (content warning for drug use, vulgar language, sexual explicitness), and let you think about why we find old people so gosh darn funny and adorable:
A Blog About Aging 