Dad joke
A dad joke is a short joke, typically a pun, presented as a one-liner or a question and answer, but not a narrative.[1] Generally inoffensive, dad jokes are stereotypically told by fathers among family, either with sincere humorous intent, or to intentionally provoke a negative reaction to its overly-simplistic humor.
Many dad jokes may be considered anti-jokes, deriving humor from an intentionally unfunny punchline.[2]
An example dad jokes goes as follows: A child will say to the father, "I'm hungry," to which the father will reply, "Hi, Hungry, I'm Dad."
While the exact origin of the term dad joke is unknown, a writer for the Gettysburg Times wrote an impassioned defense of the genre in June 1987 under the headline "Don't ban the 'Dad' jokes; preserve and revere them".[3] The term "dad jokes" received mentions in the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother in 2008[4] and the Australian quiz show Spicks and Specks in 2009.[5] In September 2019, Merriam-Webster added dad joke to the dictionary.[6]
Examples
- Q: What do you call a dad joke that falls on its head? A: A dud pun.
- Q: On Thanksgiving, why did the turkey cross the table? A: To get to the other sides
- A ham sandwich walks into a bar and the bar bartender says...Sorry we don't serve food here.
- Q: What do you call a mermaid on a roof? A: Aerial.
- Q: What does a highlighter say when it answers the phone? A: Yello!
References
- ^ "Father's Day: In praise of dad jokes". The Sydney Morning Herald. 3 September 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
- ^ Luu, Chi (12 June 2019). "The Dubious Art of the Dad Joke". JSTOR. ITHAKA. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
Dad jokes are a kind of anti-joke, different from other ways of joking in their performance, even formulaic jokes. Like self-deprecatingly joking about a personal flaw before your bullies do, dad jokes seem to court failure, presenting themselves as deliberately bad, deliberately uncool, deliberately anti-humor.
- ^ "Don't ban the "Dad" jokes; preserve and revere them". Gettysburg Times. June 20, 1987. p. 5. Retrieved 2019-02-09 – via NewspaperArchive.
- ^ Fryman, Pamela (2008-11-10), Not a Father's Day, retrieved 2016-03-02
- ^ zombieshoes76 (2009-08-30), Spicks & Specks- Dad Jokes, retrieved 2016-03-02
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "We Added New Words to the Dictionary for September 2019". Merriam-Webster. 17 September 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2019.