32 years later I get the joke
 

Derek and Clive "Endangered Species" is one of the filthiest and funniest bits ever recorded. Improvised by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in front of live mics in an empty studio. I have adored it since I first heard it... not just because it's about toads.



This particular bit:

"Whales are fucking stupid. Can you mention one whale in the history of mankind that has had a record in the top ten? Can you? Can you mention one whale who's written the equivalent of, uh, Othello? Shakespeare? Health and efficiency? They've produced nothing in the way of literature..."

Not being in Mr Cook's culture, I was unaware of this publication. Until this morning.

http://cellar.org/2015/healthandefficiency.jpg

Now it's even funnier.

Were there any times you got the joke... years later?

So you remembered the joke well enough that when you saw that image this morning it rang a bell?

That seems kind of remarkable, seeing as how you didn't get the joke the first time around.

I've pretty much memorized the Derek and Clive material... it struck me exactly in the right place, being the filthiest and most wretched of all humor.

It's not quite so impressive a span of years, okay it's more like months, but when I originally read Ben Aaronovitch's Foxglove Summer I didn't get why it was funny that Beverley was lent a leather waistcoat (vest) to cover up her nekkidness. Or why Peter Grant thought she only needed a pair of katanas and they'd be sorted if there was a zombie apocalypse.

Three seasons of The Walking Dead later and I had my Kerching! moment.
Oh... Right!

I am still getting jokes from Firesign Theater routines. They were amazing.

I just got one of those by looking at the Wikipedia page for How Can You Be In Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere At all.

So side one, "How Can You Be..." contains the origin story of the dramatic radio play on side two, "Further Adventures of Nick Danger". I never picked up on that before!

Another obscure one was "Sam Paku, this life cycle isn't big enough for the both of us."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanpaku