Courtesy: Fox Searchlight Pictures
People don’t get dad jokes. Not because the jokes aren’t smart or funny enough. It’s because they mistakenly think dad jokes are corny one-liners or puns. They’re not. Dad jokes are part of a greater goal. They are one throw in a constant game of soft toss.
Even ChatGPT, which rips off human knowledge, doesn’t understand what a dad joke is. Let me show you.
👨 Me: Hey, ChatGPT, can you give me an example of a dad joke?
🖥 ChatGPT: Why don’t skeletons fight each other? Because they don’t have the guts.
See? That’s just a bad pun. It has nothing to do with dads relentlessly pursuing our main objective, which is to playfully pepper our children with jokes day after day to uncover a hidden gem of a response.
Here’s how I dad joke:
My eldest daughter saw Shrek when she was three. She loved the movie but never included a song on her curated Pandora kids movie mix. I spotted that hole in her defenses and attacked. Every day for six months, when she played her movie mix, I would say, “That’s my favorite song from Shrek!” At first, she laughed. Then she got bored. Then she got annoyed. Then she tried to ignore me. That’s when I struck. I snuck a song from Shrek into her mix. That night while prepping dinner, she’s coloring and listening to her mix. Smash Mouth sings, “Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me…” While cutting carrots, I casually say, “That’s my favorite song from Shrek.” I stopped chopping and looked up to collect the bounty of my work. Within the span of two seconds, her face was annoyed, confused, stunned, surprised, and in awe. She wanted to know how I did it. I told her a dad never gives away his secrets. That day, my legend grew in her eyes.
This is why we make dad jokes. We don’t just lob out throwaway one-liners. We systematically work the plate to get what we want. We know our kids see the high heat inside coming their way — they will swing and hit it. They’re comfortable in that spot. We use daily jokes to push them outward, away from their perceived comfort zone. Then, when they’re just far enough away — BAM! High heat inside. A bomb of a joke right in their security spot. They’re stunned. They’re amused. They’re reminded that we’re going to be with them, day after day, making them laugh.
Dad jokes are a long con to build a connection with your kids by getting them to react in ways they haven’t before. People watching us work our craft hear one line and think that’s it. We dads know, a joke is a single pitch. And our game has nine innings. We’re going to use all of them to secure our legacy and make fans of our favorite people.
Brendan
