“Who would get a Chevy Chase joke in the style of ‘Generalissimo Franco is still dead’ joke today?”
That’s your example of an intelligent joke? It’s pretty basic. Not exactly Shakespearian.
All you have to know to know it’s funny is that once dead (longer than a certain amount of time, and barring the possibility that they’ve been frozen), people stay dead. As for the Franco part, frat boys must known at least one world leader. If not Chavez, then Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong Il.
You misunderstood - I doubt anyone now a days would know who world leaders are like in the 70s people knew who Franco was. It was not a comment on how funny the joke was but on the tastes of the audiences of today.
My brother just started college - he and his buddies - good students - don't know who any of these people are nor will they remember who they are after I tell them for very long. So I disagree.