I began playing in the senior circuit when I was 15 and won the world senior amateur title the same year.
It seems to me that humour is everybody's way of keeping sane and standing off from the situations so that they can see it intellectually, as well as emotionally, and I don't know whether you've noticed, but if somebody tells a joke, it's nearly always a mini fantasy.
The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.