John Derbyshire says that Peter Sellers isn't funny any more:

We all know, of course, that humor is perishable, and that what made our parents -- or even our younger selves -- laugh can leave us stone faced. There are degrees of perishability, though, and the very best humor can stay funny for decades. I thought Sellers was in that league. Nope. His repertoire was narrower than I'd remembered -- really just two or three funny voices and a couple of facial expressions.

Yes, I've noticed that things that I thought uproariously funny when I was younger (and I don't necessarily mean a child) no longer so. I don't know if it's a difference in my sensibilities as I've matured (or at least grown older) or that humor has its own fashion and milieu. I haven't lost my sense of humor, but it's clearly changed. I wonder what would happen to it after a couple hundred years? What will I find funny then?

Anyway, as further recent illustration, on a flight back from California a couple weeks ago, I saw The Bellboy, Jerry Lewis' directing debut, and thought by many to be his greatest work. I have vague memories of my parents taking me to see it in the theatres (the only way one generally saw movies then) as a little kid. I don't remember particularly enjoying it at the time, but I can say that on the more recent viewing, I not only never laughed, there was only one scene that even elicited a smile from me. I can't remember what it was, now.

I kept watching, hoping for something actually funny to happen, and when the plane landed before it was over, I had no sense of disappointment, because I'd given up. I was astounded in fact at how unfunny the movie was. I'd always thought that he was overrated, but I hadn't previously comprehended just how much so. One more reason to think that the French are not just a different nationality, but a different species.

[Update a few minutes later]

Just to show I haven't lost it completely, this joke (found over on Free Republic) got a chuckle out of me:

An old sergeant once went up to an attractive young woman.

"Ma'am, can you please help a lonely soldier? I haven't made love since 1955."

"Oh, you poor thing!" The young woman took the sergeant back to her apartment, where they enjoyed a more-than-mutually-satisfactory romp. Afterwards the woman leaned back and purred at the sergeant:

"For a man who hasn't had sex since 1955, you certainly haven't forgotten much!"

The sergeant checked his watch. "No reason why I would have, Ma'am; it's only 2130."

Try watching an old screwball coomedy, or something from the 1930s! Hepburn is great, if you like that sort of oldfashioned thing, but where on earth is the fun? It's not just the French, though. The UK and the US (and similar cultures) have standup comedy, other cultures don't. Eddie Izzard once toured in France and did his jokes in French and the audience laughed, so maybe they're not the different after all. But what you see on tv... (not to mention German telly, ye gods!)

My wife insisted on renting some DVD restorations of Charlie Chaplin's old movies; I died laughing. As an adult, I can now much better appreciate the insolent, smart aleck that played.

I have always believed that the French enjoy Jerry Lewis not for his humor, but because he is an American acting foolishly. I think it gives them comfort.

Three Men on a Boat by J K Jerome. Funny at age 13, funny at age 53.

Do 30 year olds still think Monty is funny?