When does a joke become a dad joke? When it is fully grown... Normally based on corny puns or taking phrases far too literally, such cheesy gags amuse and irritate in equal measure. But now academics have determined precisely what can make a dad joke succeed or fail.
Study Methodology
Psychologists examined no fewer than 32,533 examples sourced from the internet—though, perhaps wisely, they employed AI to assist in analysing how they functioned rather than enduring each groan-inducing punchline themselves. Defining a dad joke as 'short, clean, affable and non-offensive,' they discovered that the most successful ones covered topics including nature, hospitals, and money—while those mentioning celebrities, politics, or God were more likely to flop.
Top-Rated Jokes
In one experiment, approximately 600 participants were asked to rate the funniness of numerous jokes. The top three turned out to be:
- I accidentally passed my wife a glue stick instead of her ChapStick. She is still not talking to me.
- What country's capital is growing the fastest? Ireland. Every day it is Dublin.
- I told a joke on a Zoom meeting but nobody laughed. It turns out I am not remotely funny.
Expert Insights
Dr Paul Silvia of the University of North Carolina, who led the study, commented: 'Just like the cops searching for the criminals who stole the wheels from their patrol car, we have worked tirelessly to identify the comedic features of dad jokes and the kinds of people who enjoy them. Our study shows that dad jokes are compact and short, clean and affable, usually two sentences at most. Basically, anytime someone makes a corny, adorable joke (most often a pun), that is a dad joke.' He added: 'Dad jokes should be inclusive, appropriate, and non-offensive. They are not religious or political, and they rarely have any reference to death or violence.'
Who Finds Them Funny?
According to Dr Silvia's paper The Psychology Of Dad Jokes, those more likely to find them humorous include men, pet owners, parents, higher educated individuals, those with more money, religious folk, and conservatives. He and his colleague Meriel Burnett, from the University of Massachusetts, categorised the puns into an intricate array of types.
Types of Puns
The most annoying category is known as 'pedantic literalisms,' which use a precise interpretation of a word, such as: 'Did you know deer can jump higher than the average house? It is because the average house cannot jump.' Homonym puns play on words with identical pronunciation and spelling but different meanings—for example: 'I have started a new job taking care of horses. It provides a stable income.' Homograph puns, which only work when written down, rely on words with the same spelling but different sounds: 'What makes music heavy metal? A lead singer.' Homophone puns play on words with the same sound but different spelling: 'So long, boiling water. You will be mist.' And heterophonic paronym puns depend on words with similar but not identical pronunciation, such as: 'When my wife feels sad I let her colour in my tattoos. She just needs a shoulder to crayon.'
Challenging Common Beliefs
The study found that 'the biggest urban legend about humour is that people find puns aversive'—a viewpoint they claim was propagated by 'stuffy British men.' The researchers have made their extensive database of dad jokes available to fellow academics 'interested in studying humour—or hassling their teenagers.'
