“Dad, I’m hungry.”
“Hello, hungry. I'm dad.”
If you haven't slept within the last 20 years, you almost certainly recognize this exchange as a dad joke.
The term “Dad Joke” goes back to a June 20, 1987, editorial within the Gettysburg Times. Writer Jim Kalbaugh praised fathers for telling their children – or, importantly, others in front of their children – jokes that make them groan.
This practice, Kalbaugh wrote, is “one of the great father traditions that must be preserved.”
The term remained remarkably inactive until the Internet age: The first entry within the Urban Dictionary got here in 2004 from a Contributor named Bunny; it debuted on Twitter in 2007; collections of jokes on this topic were published within the UK in 2013 and within the US in 2016; and the Oxford English Dictionary added it to his entry for “Papa” in 2014.
The popularity of the term speaks for its resonance. But why accomplish that many fathers resort to one of these silly joke-telling?
A (beer) league of its own
To higher understand dad jokes, let's start with what they will not be.
As folklorists who study humor, We are used to analyzing so-called joke cycles: spreading jokes with the identical structure or theme.
Elephant jokes And Lightbulb Jokes are examples of joke cycles. (How many psychiatrists does it take to alter a lightbulb? Only one, however the lightbulb should have the need to alter itself.)
But dad jokes would not have a uniform structure and don’t revolve around a selected topic resembling raising children.
Furthermore, dad jokes will not be transgressive; they will not be sexist, racist, scatological, profane or political. They neither strike upwards nor downwards. For these reasons, they pose no risk of offending people; the dad joke is almost the other of stand-up comedy.
Dad jokes will not be only “safe,” also they are generally bad, lame, groan-inducing, etc. But that goes for plenty of other jokes too—you simply need to activate the TV and watch a sitcom to seek out them.
“Thaaaaad!”
So what makes a dad joke a dad joke?
Perhaps it’s best to consider the dad joke not as a sort of joke, but as a sort of performance involving a narrator – the daddy – and an audience: his children, his children's friends, his wife.
Let's say a family is out to dinner. Over a breadstick meal, a daughter might say, “Daddy, you need a haircut.” Then the dad responds with an unexpected punch line, “I usually get all my hair cut.”
Suddenly, Dad modified the mood from an informal conversation to a joke. Since it’s a harmless joke, nobody could be outraged.
The only rule that’s broken is the taboo of telling a nasty joke. The child is ashamed of his father's lameness. The father, in turn, knows full well that it was a nasty joke – but he doesn't care.
Soft power games
There's a reason they're called dad jokes and never father jokes.
“Father” retains the seriousness and standing of a patriarch and all the facility imbalances that include it: physical dominance, discipline, and dependence. In contrast, “Daddy” implies affection and care. He remains to be a male authority figure, but without the toxicity that patriarchy can often bring.
We subsequently view the dad joke as a chance for the daddy to claim his paternal privileges over his family and everybody else inside earshot.
For the daddy, it's a win-win situation. If the joke gets fun, that's good.
But if the joke doesn’t make you laugh … that’s wonderful too: Papa has this feature, which is technically often known as “unlaugh” and refers to jokes that create embarrassing and socially awkward situations. In this case, the best way he upsets his children is his reward.
He dominates the room as a patriarch would, but he does so within the gentlest, as playful as possible.
Of course, telling silly jokes isn't limited to dads: Most of us have made a joke sooner or later that we all know might be met with eye-rolling and head-shaking.
Dad jokes are nice jokes for nice situations amongst family and friends. They may provoke disapproving looks, but they ultimately bring people closer together.
They show a father at his most annoying, but additionally at his best: warm-hearted, silly and loving.
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