30 Responses To Jimmy Fallon Asking People To Share The Funniest And Weirdest Things Their Grandma Said
Jimmy Fallon is at it again. The host of The Tonight Show asked his viewers to share their best grandma quotes for the popular Hashtags segment, and they delivered. Big time.
From a 95-year-old nana meeting her grandchild's college friends to another one giving a man the finger because she didn't like the way he was driving, people flooded Fallon with the most memorable interactions they've had with their grams and it's kind of heartwarming to see that decades of life experience gives a refined flavor to your sense of humor as well as the confidence to flaunt it around.
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All my friends are the same age, but I'm the oldest mentally. I totally get this
Interestingly, we have evidence that suggests a person's sense of humor actually changes with age. Jennifer Stanley, a psychology professor at the University of Akron, gathered 30 young adults, 22 middle-aged people, and 29 senior citizens to watch a variety of different sitcom clips. The subjects rated how socially appropriate and how funny they found each clip. Stanley also used facial electromyography to determine how much the clips activated their smile muscles.
And just to be clear, "to be coded as a smile, there had to be an upturn of the corners of the lips plus a wrinkling of the crow’s feet at the corners of the eyes, or a pushing up of the cheeks."
The research found that older adults were much less likely to be fans of the aggressive style of humor—laughing at the expense of others. The 64-to-84-year-olds found a clip from The Office about 23 percent less funny than the middle-aged people did, and about 19 percent less funny than the 17-to-21-year-olds did.
Young adults were also more likely to smirk at the videos that showed self-deprecating humor, as exemplified in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Larry pumps his waiter for information about how much his friend left as a tip.
The older participants, meanwhile, appreciated affiliative humor—the kind of jokes that bring people together through a funny or awkward situation. Stanley said a Golden Girls clip in which the women try to buy condoms and suffer an embarrassing price check is a good example.
Humor relies on the psychological idea of the benign violation: situations that are mostly wrong but also remain at least a little bit right.
But if something is too banal, it won’t be funny. Cross the line, though, and you’ve just offended the person. Michael Scott from The Office can apparently be a little too much for older viewers.
There was a part in Sleepless in Seattle where the waitress said, “I’m just sayin’, I wouldn’t kick this guy outta my bed for eating crackers.”
So why don't grandmas find that "aggressive" humor funny you ask, young man? One explanation might be that the jokes in sitcoms have changed over time, and today's older people are just accustomed to a gentler kind of wit they were exposed to earlier.
It's very possible that people develop a greater emotional connection to a show from their own generation—Golden Girls is a much earlier show than either The Office or Curb Your Enthusiasm.
WHAT? Abraham Lincoln wasn't a vampire hunter?! My life is a lie . . .
Stanley suspects a big reason for the generation gap in humor is that as people age, they experience a variety of physical and emotional setbacks—declining cognitive faculties, friends passing away—and the affiliative style of humor helps everyone deal with these losses.
“Other work has shown that the importance of having people close by you when you experience the physical and emotional loss of aging,” she told The Atlantic. “Maybe affiliative humor is more helpful for promoting that type of experience.”
Stanley’s study can be handy when we're at the table with our family, trying to get through dinner without making a scene.
To keep the peace with elders, it suggests, act a little more like Blanche Devereaux and a little less like the boorish branch manager of Dunder Mifflin.
Note: this post originally had 99 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Grandma referred to the pussy willow buds as her Puss*es and ever time I giggled told me I needed to grow up. She also told me I didn't need a man but they could be useful on occasion - she said that in front of Grandpa. She was politely savage all the time and most of the cousins didn't realize this about her. She also loved to drink and we used to play rummy and trash talk each other. I miss her, she's still with us but Alzheimer's has taken her away mentally.
Soo.. when I was an infant, my Grandmother used to sing me the Hearse Song... she is most definitely where my morbid humour and interests come from. Ironically, I'm now a Mortuary Student.
My mom was one of 6 kids. On my grandmother's 80th, we asked her why she had so many kids. Her response: Because I liked to f**k!!
When us kids asked Grandma why she had never remarried she said "Nah, all that heavy breathing in my ear". LOL
Never say you hate anyone. Just say you don't like their ways. My Grandma was very sweet.
One of the last memories I have of my paternal grandmother is that we (the whole fam) were eating at a VERY crowded restaurant in NYC. My grandmother leans over and whispers to me, "If you go to the bathroom, don't bend over to tie your shoes." I was a little taken aback by this comment but pressed further, "Why not?" "Because," she said, "If you do, they're throw a tablecloth over you and put four chairs around you." I miss her...
“I’ll go downstairs and see a man about a horse”. To which the proper response is, “if it doesn’t come out right, make like a mathematician and work it out with a pencil.” Refers to using the toilet. 😳
One Thanksgiving me and my cousins were Playing Balderdash in the kitchen. My Grandma walked in and asked "are you still playing Bladderdash?
My grandma was a member of the church quire. One weekend they were going to another church to sing. Just hours before the bus arrived to pick her up she was kicked in the face by a cow. She wasn't hurt bad, but she had a big black eye. Entering the bus she shouted, "I was drinking, gambling, and got into a fight if anyone wonders!". She never changed her story. She only told me because she got drunk on our vacation, 30 years after it happened.
My nan once asked us when we we're out in the car if we were hungry and did we fancy a JFK. She meant KFC, we all giggled about it, but it has stuck ever since, "fancy jfk for dinner?"
Me and my mom and grandparents were sitting on the couch one time talking about how my cousin has an "only fans" account and we explained how it works, my grandma pauses for a few moments and then looks at my grandpa and goes.... "well Richard, 20 bucks is 20 bucks let's go upstairs ! Grab the camera"
My grandmother didn't like me very much. My cousin says that, out of her ten grandchildren, he and I were her 11th and 12th favorite. She ended up living half of each year with Mom and me in high school. One time I was away for a while, and when I came back I asked her, "Did you miss me?" She said, "Were you gone?"
Not a weird of funny one, but something sweet... My husband's Nana, (She adopted and raised him after his parents passed) she would always tell us "If I don't make it to see my Great-grandkids, tell them I love them." She was the sweetest soul... she passed nearly 3 years ago now.. And yes, we make sure to tell our two little boys (5 month old twins) that their Great-Nana loves them.
My Mommom once joked that only a gynecologist knows a woman's true hair color. She was a nurse that also used to say we would get warts picking up toads. She used to put plastic on the furniture because she didn't want her neighbor friend to put his 'greasy head' against her chair (he was a very kind man who brought her goodies from his son's farm all the time). When my mom got divorced and started dating again, Mommom would say she didn't understand how it was fun to spend the night at a man's house, and that she needed to leave that man alone because he had to get up early for work. She was a special lady.
My grandma said she had something very special and valuable she'd been saving a long time for me. Made a big deal about the presentation, got me all excited reaching into the financial files.... It was a small bag of nickles.
Funniest thing my grandmother ever said was when I was asking her about her favorite Star Wars character. She was like, "it's been years since I've seen it so I can't remember". I asked her, "What about Yoda?". And she replies, "Oh Yoda I think I went to school with him". I go, "Are you sure? He was over 900 years old". And she says in shock, "900!?! I'm only 91!". My family has this inside joke now that my grandmother must secretly be a Jedi since she went to school with Yoda.
Most of my grandma's quotes were just snippets of songs, for example, everytime she found a feather on the ground she sang "I wondered whether I'd find a feather, I rather thought I would".
I love these. They remind me of my MIL. But I made it to #30 and it wouldn't load anymore. I was so disappointed.
Grandma referred to the pussy willow buds as her Puss*es and ever time I giggled told me I needed to grow up. She also told me I didn't need a man but they could be useful on occasion - she said that in front of Grandpa. She was politely savage all the time and most of the cousins didn't realize this about her. She also loved to drink and we used to play rummy and trash talk each other. I miss her, she's still with us but Alzheimer's has taken her away mentally.
Soo.. when I was an infant, my Grandmother used to sing me the Hearse Song... she is most definitely where my morbid humour and interests come from. Ironically, I'm now a Mortuary Student.
My mom was one of 6 kids. On my grandmother's 80th, we asked her why she had so many kids. Her response: Because I liked to f**k!!
When us kids asked Grandma why she had never remarried she said "Nah, all that heavy breathing in my ear". LOL
Never say you hate anyone. Just say you don't like their ways. My Grandma was very sweet.
One of the last memories I have of my paternal grandmother is that we (the whole fam) were eating at a VERY crowded restaurant in NYC. My grandmother leans over and whispers to me, "If you go to the bathroom, don't bend over to tie your shoes." I was a little taken aback by this comment but pressed further, "Why not?" "Because," she said, "If you do, they're throw a tablecloth over you and put four chairs around you." I miss her...
“I’ll go downstairs and see a man about a horse”. To which the proper response is, “if it doesn’t come out right, make like a mathematician and work it out with a pencil.” Refers to using the toilet. 😳
One Thanksgiving me and my cousins were Playing Balderdash in the kitchen. My Grandma walked in and asked "are you still playing Bladderdash?
My grandma was a member of the church quire. One weekend they were going to another church to sing. Just hours before the bus arrived to pick her up she was kicked in the face by a cow. She wasn't hurt bad, but she had a big black eye. Entering the bus she shouted, "I was drinking, gambling, and got into a fight if anyone wonders!". She never changed her story. She only told me because she got drunk on our vacation, 30 years after it happened.
My nan once asked us when we we're out in the car if we were hungry and did we fancy a JFK. She meant KFC, we all giggled about it, but it has stuck ever since, "fancy jfk for dinner?"
Me and my mom and grandparents were sitting on the couch one time talking about how my cousin has an "only fans" account and we explained how it works, my grandma pauses for a few moments and then looks at my grandpa and goes.... "well Richard, 20 bucks is 20 bucks let's go upstairs ! Grab the camera"
My grandmother didn't like me very much. My cousin says that, out of her ten grandchildren, he and I were her 11th and 12th favorite. She ended up living half of each year with Mom and me in high school. One time I was away for a while, and when I came back I asked her, "Did you miss me?" She said, "Were you gone?"
Not a weird of funny one, but something sweet... My husband's Nana, (She adopted and raised him after his parents passed) she would always tell us "If I don't make it to see my Great-grandkids, tell them I love them." She was the sweetest soul... she passed nearly 3 years ago now.. And yes, we make sure to tell our two little boys (5 month old twins) that their Great-Nana loves them.
My Mommom once joked that only a gynecologist knows a woman's true hair color. She was a nurse that also used to say we would get warts picking up toads. She used to put plastic on the furniture because she didn't want her neighbor friend to put his 'greasy head' against her chair (he was a very kind man who brought her goodies from his son's farm all the time). When my mom got divorced and started dating again, Mommom would say she didn't understand how it was fun to spend the night at a man's house, and that she needed to leave that man alone because he had to get up early for work. She was a special lady.
My grandma said she had something very special and valuable she'd been saving a long time for me. Made a big deal about the presentation, got me all excited reaching into the financial files.... It was a small bag of nickles.
Funniest thing my grandmother ever said was when I was asking her about her favorite Star Wars character. She was like, "it's been years since I've seen it so I can't remember". I asked her, "What about Yoda?". And she replies, "Oh Yoda I think I went to school with him". I go, "Are you sure? He was over 900 years old". And she says in shock, "900!?! I'm only 91!". My family has this inside joke now that my grandmother must secretly be a Jedi since she went to school with Yoda.
Most of my grandma's quotes were just snippets of songs, for example, everytime she found a feather on the ground she sang "I wondered whether I'd find a feather, I rather thought I would".
I love these. They remind me of my MIL. But I made it to #30 and it wouldn't load anymore. I was so disappointed.
