Corny, and Jokes in Your Seed Catalogs

The adjective corny describes someone or something “unsophisticated” or “naive.” This sense of corny goes back at least as far as the 1920s. Seed catalogs of the time often contained bits of goofy jokes and broad humor described as corny. In addition, terms like corn fed, cornpone, and cornball were all associated with rustic life and urban dwellers’ stereotypes of rural inhabitants as less than intelligent. This is part of a complete episode.