In honor of Father’s Day in the US and many other countries in the world, and after reading the “tell us your best jokes thread,” I thought the Dope might be a better source for so-called “dad jokes.” You know, those really corny groaners that, for some reason, middle-aged-and-older men (and I’m sure others) seem to develop an unexplainable fondness for, probably mostly to embarrass their children. So keep it reasonably clean, and short!
Two to start off:
A grasshopper walks into a bar. Bartender says, “Hey! Ya know, we’ve got a drink named after you!” The grasshopper looks surprised and says: “You got a drink named Steve?”
Hey, is this thing on? OK, another one: Two eggs are sitting in a pan. One egg turns to the other and says “Boy, sure is getting hot in here.” The other egg says “HOLY CRAP! A TALKING EGG!”
rim shot
I’ll be here all night. Be sure to tip your server! (Though, I have to admit, the first time I heard those jokes, I heard them said with such conviction and a snappy delivery that I couldn’t help but chuckle.)
My dad used to have this thing whenever one of my friends called the house:
Caller: Hi, is Pete home?
Dad: Yes.
Caller: pause
Caller: pause continues until caller realizes nothing is happening, and my father was simply answering the question posed to him, and not taking any further action.
Caller: Um, can you get him?
Dad: Oh, sure! PETER, PHONE CALL!
We were at the start of a camping trip and had met up with some friends at our favorite campground. Parental types were standing around, trying to figure out what we should have for dinner.
Church mom of another family: “I have chicken breasts.”
My dad: “We can’t all be perfect.”
My dad had this classic he would use on his flying buddies: “Hey, (whoever), Come with me to the proctologist tomorrow. They’re having a special. Two Assholes for the price of one!”
From a guy who I consider a “Dad Joke God” (he’s a salesman, to boot).
A beer company ran a popular advertising campaign featuring “Clean Mountain Waters” and another company considered a campaign featuring a well-endowed young lady saying seductively, “lf you like my mountains, you’ll love my Busch”, but it didn’t go over well. I dunno why…
2 birds were standing on a perch.
One said to the other, “Do you smell fish?”
What’s brown and sounds like a bell?
Dung!
I’m 58, and I’ve loved these jokes since I was a kid. And yes, my dad told a lot of them. But I don’t recall ever hearing them described as “dad jokes” until maybe the past decade. Actually, it seems much more recent. Anyone else perceive this designation as somewhat recent?
Looking through the Chicago Tribune archives, it does seem like the usage has become much more common, but I do see an article from 1988 referencing “dad jokes” in the way we use it now. This seems to be a one-off, though. All the other 80s and 90s references are to “dad’s jokes” or “dad’s old jokes,” so not quite the established phrase “dad jokes” is today. It seems to show up again in a 2003 article, in the phrase “bad dad jokes.” But “dad jokes” doesn’t seem to show up regularly in print there until 2016.
Now, in the NYTimes, I don’t see “dad jokes” come up until 2014 when searching their archive.
So it does seem to only have become popular as a phrase relatively recently. I would never have guessed – it does have the feel of phrase that’s always been around to me, but I guess it hasn’t.