Ageing is not a joke
People laugh when they imagine themselves as old people. Would they laugh if they imagined themselves to be sick?
You would be horrified if you saw a television show or read a book that portrayed the suffering and difficulties of an oncological patients in a mocking, disrespectful way. At the very least, the comic or show would seem to have a bad taste. You would probably feel the same way about material that featured a disabled person, or someone who had a limited time left to live due to an incurable illness. For example, you might think that the comic book was in bad taste if it featured a child with progeria.
It is not unusual to laugh at the illnesses of old age and elderly people as a whole in a similar way, without much outrage. Why is there a distinction?
All of us have seen this
This phenomenon is probably something you have seen in your own life. Who hasn’t seen a sketch in which the characters are frustrated by an elderly, shriveled man holding up a vintage ear trumpet who keeps misinterpreting what they say despite their best efforts? How many times has a joke been made about an elderly person who lost their dentures, or a man who rambled on and on about everything?
Source:
https://www.leafscience.org/aging-is-no-laughing-matter/
