A dad joke is a joke, typically a pun, often presented as a one-liner or a question and answer.[1] Generally inoffensive, dad jokes are told with sincere humorous intent or to intentionally provoke a negative "groaning" reaction to their overly simplistic humor. Dad jokes are called dad jokes because they are stereotypically thought to be jokes a father or someone like a father would tell to a child.[2]
Dad jokes sent via text message
An example of a dad joke would be for a child to say, "I'm hungry," to which the dad might reply, "Hi, Hungry, I'm Dad."[3] According to a 2023 survey of 1,500 American fathers and their partners, this particular gag was the most heard of the genre in nine U.S. states and the most common nationwide. Of the states, Pennsylvania and Delaware report the highest frequency of dad jokes heard.[4]
Some dad jokes may be considered anti-jokes, deriving humor from a punchline that is intentionally not funny,[5] such as non sequiturs like: "Q: Why did the plane crash into the mountain? A: Because the pilot was a loaf of bread."[6]
While the exact origin of the term dad joke is unknown, the term was first published by Jim Kalbaugh,[6] who wrote an impassioned defense of the genre in The Gettysburg Times in June 1987 under the headline "Don't ban the 'Dad' jokes; preserve and revere them".[7]
The genre began to thrive on social media platforms; in 2017, #dadjokes was one of the most popular hashtags on Twitter.[6] The U.S. Administration for Children and Families and the Ad Council launched the #dadjokesrule campaign in August 2017 to use the increasing popularity of the humor form to encourage positive father-child communication. Ad Council president and chief executive officer Lisa Sherman said, "Dad jokes represent more than just a trend; these jokes are smiles, moments, and memories made with one of the most important people in a child's life."[10]
In September 2019, Merriam-Webster added the phrase "dad joke" to the dictionary.[11]
In October 2021, Men's Health compiled 200 of "the best dad jokes of all time", sorting them into topical categories of punny, "groaners", sick, parenting, and "my wife".[12]
In May 2022, Today published a list of 225 in the humor genre, categorizing some as being better suited for adults than for children.[13]
Examples
Q: What does a lemon say when it answers the phone? A: Yellow!
Q: What's orange and sounds like a parrot? A: A carrot.
^Luu, Chi (12 June 2019). "The Dubious Art of the Dad Joke". JSTOR Daily. New York City: 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.
^ abcDesai, Devika (June 15, 2019). "Father Knows Jest". Newspapers.com. National Post. p. WP2. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
