Where It All Began: Dad Jokes

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Dad jokes. Basically, when you become a dad in the future, all your jokes will turn into dad jokes. A 2018 version of me didn’t even know what a dad joke is, until I saw this video on YouTube which is entitled “Dad jokes With Kratos”. Christopher Judge, or best known for voicing Kratos in the new God of war series made a blast way back in 2018.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWwvR6cSH4o

“Why don’t crabs give to charity? Because they are shellfish, boy.” That line made me knew that these dad jokes are actually like puns and sometimes these dad jokes aren’t just cringy enough but can actually showcase wit. “I use to hate facial hair, but then it grew on me” – Christopher Judge

A "dad joke" is a short joke, usually a pun, offered as a one-liner or a query and response but not as a story. Dad jokes are simple, straightforward jokes that are usually told with good intentions or to purposefully elicit a negative response due to their naivety. Now that we are starting to learn dad jokes, let us first distinguish it from a pun which is somewhat similar to a dad jokes. Dad jokes are not the same as lousy jokes, even if they share many characteristics with one other.

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Dad Jokes

It has been suggested that many dad jokes are actually anti-jokes, with the humor coming from the fact that the punchline isn't meant to be amusing. Among the many varieties of dad jokes, one might hear anything like this: When a child says, "Dad, I’m sorry," then the dad may respond, "Hi, Sorry, I'm Dad" something like that. It's humorous to them, but their kids find it really irritating. The most important part of a dad joke is avoiding the question. Another way of avoiding to answer a straight question is to instead provide a vague answer. The reality could be a dad joke, but it's not the answer the youngster was hoping for.

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History of Dad Jokes

Well, the first documented use of the word "dad joke" was in a June 1987 editorial in the Gettysburg Times titled "Don't outlaw the '"Don't ban the 'Dad' jokes; preserve and revere them". Not only that but references to dad jokes were even made in the American comedy How I Met Your Mother way back in 2008 and the Australian quiz show Spicks & Specks in 2009. As a result, the term "Dad joke" entered Merriam-dictionary Webster's in September of 2019. So you see, even I can’t even relate to what a dad joke is back in 2018. In the case of a dad joke, the only person who laughs is the dad or the joke teller himself. The humor derives from his own unique perspective, therefore it's just you and the dad joke.

Puns

Do we consider dad jokes as a pun? Well sort of, but not really, because puns are jokes that use wordplay wherein there are certain words which are similar in spelling, pronunciation, or meaning and these are the basis for many humorous puns. For example: A boiled egg for lunch is hard to beat. Get it like when you beat an egg to turn it into a scrambled egg?

Another example is A pessimists blood type is B-negative? I saw what they did there like mentioning the characteristic of a pessimist which is to “be negative”. Kinda clever ain’t it?

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Funny puns and normal jokes are both entertaining, but can be for different reasons. In the exceedingly awful language of humor theorists, puns have "semantic ambiguity" whereas jokes do not. That is to say, understanding the double meaning of pupil is a significant part of the humor.

Each joke has its own unique effect on my mind when I read it. Accordingly, I assume that my mind is employing unique methods of processing for each.

History of Puns

Little did I know that puns were actually originated in Ancient Egypt and had a significant role in the creation of myths and the decoding of dreams. Like how was that before? How were puns connected to decoding dreams? Since the Ancient Egyptians were a humorous bunch, it's no surprise that puns were frequently used in dream interpretations. They said that if you dreamed that you were eating a donkey, for example, then you were on the road to success. The terms "donkey" and "great" are pronounced and spelled similarly, but their meanings couldn't be further apart, hence this idiom was born.

Although this explanation may seem absurd, dreams played a significant role in Ancient Egyptian culture and that I suppose was the birth of puns.

Cringiest Puns and Dad Jokes in Movies?

Okay, so the characters in consideration need not be dads or even guys, but they should have a sense of humor that is consistent with the stereotype of dad jokes. Moreover, I'm not arguing that these films are awful because they have such humor. Maybe they simply need some fresh plot points to keep things interesting.

1. Justin Hammer - Iron Man 2 (2010)

“Today my friends, the press is faced with quite a different problem. They are about to run out of ink.” Yes, it is a little uncomfortable for the audience to cheer for him. Even if his rhythm suggested he was cracking a joke, we wouldn't have gotten it.

2. Milkman – Big Fish (2003)

Yes. That one always gets my vote. Is it even fine to make a dad joke in the middle of the investigation? “I want to know more about this fella with the axe, how does he fit into all of this? Maybe you should axe him yourself!” Yep, kinda cringy but kinda funny too and that literally got me.