Apparently everyone’s dad did this back in the 90s (and earlier??). Where did it come from? Maybe some TV show?
Welcome to the SDMB, notmenotyou!
I remember the joke back from when I was a kid in the early 1960’s. It’s probably older than that.
I expect it’s probably oral tradition, not from any TV show or the like.
It appeared in print at least as far back as 1986:
Dunno if this Doc Blakely invented the joke, but even if it only appeared in print in 1986, he might have been using it long before then.
We were doing that “joke” on each other, as kids, in the late 1970s.
I have never heard this joke. Does it require a prop or perhaps putting your hand on your mark’s head or something?
Yes, you put your hand on their head and flex your fingers.
“What is this? A brain sucker! What’s it doing? Starving!”
I learned this in school and used to do it to my mom in the late 70s, early 80s (and points beyond, just to annoy her)
Encountered it as a kid in the early 80s.
I’d put it down as a kid thing, not a “dad” thing.
College classmate would do it to me, flexing her fingers as an octopus above my head and saying the line. I ended up drawing comics for her to that theme.
I never heard it before either.
I’ve never heard it before.
And it doesn’t work as what I’d call a dad joke since the punchline relies on the ‘What’s it doing?’ setup no kid is ever going to give dad.
It just needs proper prompting.
Dad: “What’s this?”
Kid: “I dunno”
Dad: “A brain sucker. Know what it’s doing?”
Kid: “What?”
Dad: “Starving.”
Although I think of it more as an uncle joke than a dad joke.
Growing up my older brother did it to me all the time. I swapped out ‘starving’ with ‘getting plenty of food’ when I passed it on to my kids.
Another “never heard it.”
A related joke was to hold your hand out palm up with your fingers sticking upward rigidly, reminiscent of a dead spider. “Know what this is?” “What?” “A dead one of these.” Then you flip your hand over, plop it on top of their head, and start sucking their brain.