Are jokes getting less funny now? Perhaps, but the deeper reality is that the listeners are changing, making many once-laugh- inducing jokes seem, well, less funny. Laughter has been a coping mechanism in an era that delivered plenty of discouraging realities. Now, that coping mechanism is becoming less sufficient. Individuals are moving beyond a dependence on the short-term easing of anxieties and frustrations that jokes have provided and are expressing a need for long-term changes that address the causes of those anxieties and frustrations. They are starting by giving wider approval for overt expressions of emotions and by working to make themselves better people. From there, they are likely to take action to make society a place that does not depend on jokes just to get by. That could easily force changes in politics, advertising, workplace conditions and social values.