--- title: Five Best: Comedy Needs to Retire ‘It Was Just A Joke’ description: It’s time for comedy to retire the “it was just a joke” excuse, this might explain the link between some diseases and birth month and more. canonical: https://time.com/5029188/comedy-needs-to-retire-it-was-just-a-joke/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-17T17:00:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:20.158Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Comedy Needs to Retire ‘It Was Just A Joke’ og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/5029188/comedy-needs-to-retire-it-was-just-a-joke/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Comedy Needs to Retire ‘It Was Just A Joke’ twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Comedy Needs to Retire ‘It Was Just A Joke’ > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 17, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 17, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**It’s time for comedy to retire the “it was just a joke” excuse.**](https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/culture/2017/11/17/16666430/al-franken-sexual-harassment-comedy) By Caroline Framke in _Vox_ **2\.** [**This might explain the link between some diseases and birth month.**](http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2017/11/15/birth-season-study-links-prenatal-environment-with-disease-risk/) By the _Columbia University Medical Center_ **3\.** [**How a genetic mutation helps the Amish fight aging and diabetes — and could help us all.**](https://newatlas.com/amish-genetic-mutation-lifespan-diabetes/52212/) By Michael Irving in _New Atlas_ **4\.** [**This software lets you use spare computer time to help post bail for someone who needs it.**](http://www.alphr.com/life-culture/1007685/this-software-lets-you-bail-people-out-of-jail-by-mining-cryptocurrency) By Alex Lee in _Alphr_ **5\.** [**The next frontier for science is citizen engagement.**](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/citizen-science-salon/2017/11/13/sciences-next-frontier-its-civic-engagement/#.Wg2udraZNE4) By Louise Lief in _Discover_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5029188/comedy-needs-to-retire-it-was-just-a-joke/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5029188/comedy-needs-to-retire-it-was-just-a-joke/"},"headline":"Comedy Needs to Retire ‘It Was Just A Joke’","datePublished":"2017-11-17T17:00:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:20.158Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/5029188/comedy-needs-to-retire-it-was-just-a-joke/","keywords":["Innovation","Aging","Comedy","health","engagement"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5029188/comedy-needs-to-retire-it-was-just-a-joke/","name":"Comedy Needs to Retire ‘It Was Just A Joke’"}}]}] ```