Context

A bit less than forty years ago, Bruce Jenner was on the front panel of your box of Wheaties, a world-famous superstar athlete. This joke would have made no sense then.

Twenty years ago, Bill Clinton was still barely managing to keep his dick in his pants (so far as we knew, anyway) and Bruce Jenner was still mostly male (so far as we knew, anyway). This joke would have made no sense then.

It's all about context. How enormously has the context of American life changed in a mere forty years. Makes me glad I'll be dead in another forty.