As for trying to be funny — well, long ago the late Tom Driberg proposed that typographers should design a new face, which would slop the opposite way from italics, and would be called "ironics". In this type-face jokes would be set, and no-one would have any excuse for failing to see them. Until this happy development takes place, I am left with the only really useful thing journalism has taught me: that there is no joke so obvious that some bloody fool won't miss the point.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "As for trying to be funny — well, long ago the late Tom Driberg proposed that typographers should design a new face, which would slop the opposite way from italics, and would be called "ironics". In this type-face jokes would be set, and no-one would have any excuse for failing to see them. Until this happy development takes place, I am left with the only really useful thing journalism has taught me: that there is no joke so obvious that some bloody fool won't miss the point." in the context of "The Times (23 February 1982, as cited in Shady Characters, Keith Houston, 2013)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.