andrewducker | Dad jokes: A linguistic annoyance

A random thing that annoys me: People referring to all puns as "Dad jokes".

Now, nearly all dad jokes are puns, but (for me) puns are only dad jokes if they are specifically the kind that are aimed at kids (like the "Hi, XXX, I'm Dad" subtype), ones where the topic is associated with your kids, or ones which are so basic that only kids are taken in by the misdirection/misunderstanding in them.

I've been a lover of puns since looooong before I was a dad, disliked the association some people made then, and I haven't warmed to it since becoming a dad.

So, for me:
Pun = deliberate misunderstandings or confusions for humorous effect.
Dad joke = jokes aimed children. Usually puns (as they're simple enough to be told to kids). Usually by their dads, but many mums also enjoy torturing their kids, and other associated adults may also join in the fun.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

simont

I agree, but I think I'd go even further. A dad joke is a joke so bad that even the child you intended to amuse is likely to roll their eyes with an air of "Don't try that five-year-old stuff on me, I'm six."

From:

andrewducker

Oh yes. You're generally trying to annoy your child, not make them laugh.

(Sophia doesn't really get jokes yet. Very occasionally there will be one that makes her laugh. And she's fascinated by knock-knock jokes, will make me tell her dozens that I have to go and look up online for her. But she totally doesn't understand how they work and she can't tell them except for a couple she's memorised.)

From:

skington

Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Dishwasher.
Dishwasher who?
Dishwasher the way I shpoke before I got my falsh teeth.

From:

andrewducker

That actually made me giggle.

From:

armiphlage

A kid joke is immature.
A dad joke is full groan.

From:

moniqueleigh

Ooo! I quite like that.

From:

skington

One theory I saw ages ago was that every guy wants to tell Dad jokes, but only once they’re actually safely married and in no danger of scaring potential eligible partners away can they safely tell them. This fits with your framing of Dad jokes as being the absolute worst of jokes.

So dropping a witty quip during conversation: fine, perfectly reasonable behaviour, will get you pluses. Saying things like “I say, I say, I say: how do you measure how powerful a pun is? With a seismograph!!1!” has everyone groaning, throwing things at you, to be avoided if you’re not already safely attached. (The post in question was actually tagged #DadJoke, which was a nice bonus that proves my point nicely.)

From:

andrewducker

If you can't take me telling puns then you don't deserve me, well, telling puns.

From:

channelpenguin

Autocorrect ruined it?

From:

andrewducker

I had to click through to the original before I understood.

From:

skington

Bah. (Although, strictly speaking, a pun is an auditory form of expression and inherently shouldn't be written down?)

From:

simont

I think that only means it's harder to write down.

Also, there are puns on the written form of a word as well as the spoken form. One of my favourite Doctor Who puns is to say that Renault must have had a Who fan working for them, since they brought out both the Renault E-Space and the Renault McGann. Somehow this works despite one of the puns only making sense in the spelling and the other only in the pronunciation!

From:

andrewducker

Why does one only work in pronunciation?

From:

simont

I meant that "E-Space" and "Espace" are pronounced totally differently from each other despite the very similar spelling, whereas "Mégane" and "McGann" are pronounced very similarly despite the different spelling.

From:

andrewducker

Aaaah. This is where my lack of car knowledge meant I didn't realise that the car was spelled Mégane!

From:

simont

Ah, that was what the problem was! I had been uncertain how much detail I needed to explain.

From:

channelpenguin

I'm not keen on puns, especially the ones that are really tenuous or rely on extremely exaggerated pronunciation/incorrect word stresses. Which is most of them, I guess.

So. Grounds for divorce, if a hubby started to pull them out after we were safely married!

I had honestly never heard of the view that only puns could be Dad jokes. I thought just any really terrible, simple and not funny joke could count.

From:

andrewducker

I think most really simple jokes are puns. Can you think of many that aren't?

From:

skington

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" although that's arguably an anti-joke.

From:

andrewducker

Yeah, it's deliberately undercutting the very concept of a joke, which makes it conceptually quite complex.

From:

calimac

Probably for that reason it doesn't feel to me like a dad joke.

From:

calimac

"Hi, XXX, I'm Dad" is a deliberate misunderstanding of words, but it's not a pun, and that's the most classic of Dad jokes, to which simplicity and inanity seem to me the defining characteristics. (It's also the only Dad joke my own Dad actually used. He wasn't a joke-teller in the sense that he wouldn't pose a riddle or tell a comic story e.g. "X walked into a bar.")

From:

andrewducker

That's a good point. It depends on the joke teller misunderstanding rather than causing misunderstanding.

And, obviously, is one I'd be happy calling a "dad joke".

From:

armiphlage

I always thought a Dad joke was one where the punch line was aparent.

From:

channelpenguin

I can't tell jokes. I don't tell jokes. I frequently miss when others are telling jokes. My dad would have had a hard time. (I'm also not ticklish).

(OT: I am, however "extremely funny". Officially. It's actually in my annual review at work from last year. I don't know if it works on kids too, or just German computer geeks.)

From:

andrewducker

Oh yeah, you can be very funny without telling actual jokes.

Whenever I tell jokes I usually have to go from memory (tricky for more complex ones) or remember the punchline and then backform it from there.

Sophia also struggles with jokes. I think she'll get a better grip with them later, but right now she clearly doesn't understand how they're supposed to work.