You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.

George Burns became especially identified with jokes about aging during his late-life career resurgence, when his public persona leaned into wry, self-deprecating observations about growing old. This quip belongs to that vein: a stand-up–style one-liner built on a familiar physical moment (bending to tie shoes) and the comic recognition that getting back up now feels like a major undertaking. It circulated widely in quotation collections and popular humor anthologies under Burns’s name, reflecting the way his late interviews and performances often turned everyday inconveniences into punchlines about longevity and bodily decline.

In a classic George Burns vein, the line turns the indignities of aging into a punchline: a simple act—bending to tie shoelaces—becomes a moment of strategic planning because getting back up feels costly. The humor depends on exaggeration, but it points to a real shift in bodily experience: movements once automatic now require effort, caution, and sometimes a mental checklist. The joke also hints at a broader psychological adaptation to aging—learning to economize energy and time, and to accept limitations without surrendering wit. It’s self-deprecating, but also resilient: laughter becomes a way of maintaining dignity and perspective.