Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. sentimental, naïve, unsophisticated.

1932		Melody Maker June 511: The ‘bounce’ of the brass section [...] has degenerated into a definitely ‘corny’ and staccato style of playing.
1938		H.M. Anderson Strip Tease 37: ‘Jokes are “corny” [...] old-timey’.
1942		R. Chandler High Window 26: ‘I love my wife,’ he said suddenly, and showed me the hard white edges of his teeth. ‘A corny touch, but it’s true.’.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 251: In the East they make cracks and corny jokes and obvious references.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 47: Corny, but what else to mention?
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 54: Sometimes a story is told one which is so corny.
1985		Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 2 Jan. I got this really mushy, corny and stupid letter in the mail today from Steve M. I only like him as a friend. Every time I read it I cracked up laughing.
1989		R.G. Barratt ‘So Why Doesn’t Jack the Lad Get a Real Job?’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] I’m a corny, flag-waving patriot.
1993		Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 41: It’s [i.e. a joke] really corny.
1999		Guardian Guide 3-9 July 54: The story is 100 per cent corny vaudeville.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] The singer’s act was that corny, you could have boxed it and sold it for breakfast cereal.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 342: Only nowadays, he said, people think that kind of scene is corny, a tired cliche.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] He still, remembered most of the corny names and places.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 200: He’s here to croon his corny repertoire.

2. simple, obvious.

1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 168: You told us that one. We heard all your corny riddles, Hon.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 26: It sounds kinda corny, but . . .
1969		I. Hebditch ‘Weekend’ unpub. thesis in Hewitt (2000) 134: We get Rikki, who cracks a few corny jokes, everyone boos and whistles madly.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 207: Nobody wanted to do anything, she said, but eat and drink and smoke dope, which was corny.
1985		J. Sherwood Botanist at Bay 162: This is the corniest police trap I ever heard of.
2000		F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 33: He had followed her around [...] cracking corny jokes to get her to giggle some more.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] ‘I peak Vietnamese Cantonese, Mandarin [...]’ ‘Talk about a cunning linguist.’ I know, it was corny.
2011		Week 8 Jan. 25/1: The ‘flimsy’ plot is ‘sub-Pygmalion’ and the gags are corny.

3. rural, socially backward.

1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 165: His corny-looking hat, the brim of which was too wide.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 162: Tarrytown [...] I’ll bet that’s a real corny joint.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 158: You don’t think it’s corny? I always wanted to live in the country.
1999		Indep. on Sun. 17 Oct. 23: They say something corny like [...] ‘Stick ’em up.’ Nobody says that anymore.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 146: You about a corny motherfucker.

4. banal, also used adv.

1935		J. O’Hara Butterfield 8 96: [S]ometimes [...] the three friends would have a jam session [...] complimenting each other on breaks and licks or making pained faces when one or the other would play very corny.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 81: The producer plays tough. All he says is corny, stinks or 1902.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 5: He strolled off [...] not even bothering to look towards the Rolls-Royce. He probably thought it was corny.
1965		T. Wolfe Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1966) 38: Singers like Frank Sinatra, all that corny nostalgia.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 182: There was a striptease joint where men peeled off to the buff in some corny act or other.
1990		(con. 1930s–60s) H. Huncke Guilty of Everything (1998) 245: This sounds corny [...] but when it comes to whether a guy is black or white, it never made much difference to me.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 160: The messages they would flash ranged from corny propaganda [...] to motivational pep squawk.
2002		J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 83: We would [...] catch the other acts, joke to each other about the ones we thought corny.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 14: I said something corny to Ben.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 139: Television was corny, the street was much more entertaining.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 151: Cause the shit [i.e. a bad pun] was corny.