Anatomy of a Dad Joke
intro to Dad Jokes at the commencement of the Master Class in Dad Jokes from the UnderAcademy College,
Digressors: O’Neill, Memmott, & Marino
The Germans have a word: peinlich (not pronounced Pint-Lick), which loosely translates into “pour me another one” because it represents the feeling that parents give to their teenage children. And that word perfectly describes effect of the Dad Joke on the teenage mind.
What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta!
That joke is hilarious, but to the child of a certain age, well, it’s just another Dad Joke.
Oh, it’s not all bad. There is a moment, early in a child’s life, when Dad is hilarious, when Dad can do no wrong, when his kids think he is the funniest man on the planet. This usually ends during a phase Freud liked to call the Fredipal Complex, named after his father, Fred Freud, who was already the victim of his own unfunny father’s terrible gags.
But what is a Dad Joke?
If there was a recipe for dad jokes, Dad would probably burn it.
See how easy that was? Now, you try!
But what are the elements?
Dad jokes are:
- Very corny (or mucho maiz, en español)
- Formulaic: Usually only dad has the punny answer
- Often overheard from someone else or from a joke book or gum wrapper
- Poorly delivered with little or no attempt at proper.
Dads are particular fond of question jokes (à la, “What do you call a…”) because the dad is the only one in the answer (other than other dads), and getting it to end requires the child’s cooperation/complicity/obedience.
The clearest sign of a Dad joke is:
You cannot tell this joke to other people without assuming Dad’s sense of humor.
Now let’s take a closer look at a classic Dad joke that my Dad used to always tell us:
A guy goes to a doctor and says, “Doctor, you gotta help me. It hurts when I go like this.” Doctor looks at him and says, “Then, don’t go like that.”
Breaking down the Ha Ha
The beauty of this joke is that once you tell it, you can pull it out again and again, every time your child says, “Dad, my [blank] hurts whenever I do this.” They’re bound to say it, and instead of patronizing them, you can just say the punchline of the joke. In fact, thanks to their complaint, they have helped you tell the joke and relive its memory as they wince in agony.
A warning to the family:
Groaning only encourages the teller. The Dad Joke operates free from feedback because it does not cause genuine laughter. Only sympathy for the teller, a kind of pity. One may get likes or favorites online because those do are not genuine real time responses, only intentional gestures. Like saying, “Nice one, Dad” instead of laughing. Feedback includes head shakes, wincing, bloating, jaundice, and recommending that the teller of the jokes signs up for this class. It is this divorce from and indifference toward the success measure of genuine laughter that gives rise to the Dad Joke or the telling of the Dad Joke in the first place.
Dad jokes have a long history:
And Dad jokes don’t have to be jokes at all. They can also be slightly amusing sayings or even poems, like this one:
Now it’s spring and all the boids (birds) are on the wing. Hey wait a minute, that’s absoid. I thought the wings was on the boid.
It took me years to get the syntactical sleight-of-hand in this joke. Years. I was in college. And when I did. I don’t think I’d slept in weeks (unrelated). I wept. (Also, unrelated. I was and am an easy weeper.)
Can any joke be a dad joke?
I don’t think so. I think there are some jokes that are so funny in their own right, they do not qualify. But it’s worth testing. It’s possible that a Dad could tell a very funny joke, but likely that would not qualify.
Are Dad jokes fundamentally patriarchal?
Can’t decide. Seems to me it cuts both ways. On the surface, the dad joke undermines the father’s authority because they are doing something embarrassing. On the other hand, only one comfortable in his authority could get away with such cornball material.
Can Mom tell Dad jokes?
That’s what she said.
(Heard my kids say that one. Always wanted to use it.)
Can I tell a dad joke if I’m not a Dad?
…as far as you know!
One more caveat:
It is quite possible a joke becomes a Dad Joke not because of the nature of the joke, but through the pained response of his embarrassed children.
But that’s a little heady.
Okay, I think you’re ready now. Go tell some dad jokes. Tell me how it works out. And if it feels peinlich to anyone and they roll their eyes till it hurts, well, you know what to tell them.
Dedicated to my dad, Art Marino, who passed away just last year. He was dad joker for the ages.
