The old joke wasn't funny to a couple of BYU professors, but they didn't consider it offensive.

"It's kind of tired," said Eric Eliason, an English professor who specializes in folklore and humor. "It's not any sort of new, shocking thing at all. It seems like kind of an obvious play on the acronym that's mildly amusing and really not that funny. It's really an example of folk speech and playing with acronyms."

In fact, it's a common joke among Mormons, but many wouldn't appreciate others using it.

"It's something that BYU students themselves call BYU," Eliason said. "Scholars of folk humor call it the exoteric-esoteric factor in the telling of jokes. It's that idea that if you're an insider you can joke about things that are different if an outsider says it."

A religion professor who specializes in outreach and interfaith relations said the joke is inaccurate — Mormons are marrying and having children later and later in life — and divisive.

"Such generalizations rarely help to communicate anything," Robert Millet said. "It's like any categorization or pigeonhole or demonization you want to make: They are generally not very helpful because you're drawing a generalization that doesn't hold much water.

The same goes for Mormons, he said. He has counseled BYU students against stereotyping people of other faiths. And he said they shouldn't be hurt by Lyman's comment.

"We blow that off and go about our business," he said. "There's much more important stuff to do."

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Contributing: Tad Walch, Deseret Morning News