Dad Jokes

What Makes a Dad Joke?

A regular joke wants you to laugh. A dad joke doesn't care if you laugh, it just wants credit for trying. The formula is simple: take a perfectly normal sentence, twist one word until it barely still makes sense, then deliver the whole thing with total confidence like you didn't just ruin dinner. Bonus points if it's accompanied by a wink, a pause for effect, or the phrase "get it?".

Did You Know?

The term "dad joke" didn't really catch on in everyday language until the 2000s, even though dads have clearly been telling these things forever. Linguists have pointed out that dad jokes almost always follow the same structure: a straightforward setup followed by a pun that hijacks one word's meaning, which is exactly why they're so easy to see coming and somehow still land anyway.

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