Is this a joke to you?

Knock knock! Who's there? No one. Jokes have moved on to “6-7” and “Jet2 holiday”. The setup is dead. So are henpecked husbands and Sardarji punchlines. Last week was Chalamet vs ballet. Next week, who knows? Just laugh along

- Christalle Fernandes [e-mail]

Ask someone to tell you a joke.

A Boomer will probably talk about how he's such a harassed husband. A Millennial might joke about low-rise jeans and The Simpsons. Gen Zs will ask you to check the 10,000 unopened Reels they already sent you. A Gen Alpha might say something like skibidi toilet or 6-7 (and laugh, because the butt of the joke is you).

In 2026, we're laughing differently. Jokes are absurd, self-deprecating, and don't make sense if you aren't chronically online. So, what do we find funny now? Pick your fighter: LOL, Lmaooo or a string of skull emojis.

The source

Then: Siddhi Palande, a book blogger, recalls spending the summer holidays with her cousins in the '90s, passing around pun books and Tinkle Comics, and making each other laugh. “We’d memorise the best puns and punchlines to tell later on, and earn a reputation for being witty.” Everyone read some version of 101 Jokes for Kids or Life's Like That in the Reader’s Digest. Their comic heroes: Suppandi and Shikari Shambu from Tinkle Comics. The agents of chaos: PG Wodehouse’s Wooster and Khushwant Singh’s Santa-Banta.

Now: We're not telling jokes, we’re sharing them. The laughs are drawn from reaction GIFs, movie stills, everyday moments that we all thought were unique to us but weren’t really, even referencing a shared annoyance: “Nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday”. Are we all living the same life?

The drama