Those pre-60s performers frequently had 2 routines, the family ones and the ‘blue’ ones for after 11pm. Even their family ones are usually funnier than most of the contemporary performers. Maybe I’m just an old fart!
That’s because they were actually funny.
George Burns was a member of a country club that banned smoking. They had an age exception with a sign at George Burns part of the club he liked. The sign said smoking is prohibited unless you are a certain age or older. The age exactly matched his age and went up one year on his birthday.
Late in life, George Burns was being interviewed (maybe for NPR?), and the interviewer marveled at how he had been able to have such a long and successful career without ever going “blue”, like so many of the younger comedians of the time.
Burns answered that, quite the contrary, he could do “blue” humor just fine...but he didn’t see it as “comedy”. “Anybody can do that”, he said.