The Under-Valued Pun and “Dad Joke”
Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster
When I was stationed in Greenland with the USAF in the early 70’s, I spent a lot of my time reading books written by and about comics and comedy.
Despite the fact that these were people from different eras and backgrounds, there were many common points of reference when it came to the funny stuff.
Now, I consider myself a bit of a comedy and humor fan and I’ve been recently intrigued by the phenomena known as “Dad jokes”.
Defined as “an unoriginal or predictable joke, especially a pun, of a type supposedly told by fathers; a wholesome joke of the type said to be told by fathers with a punch line that is often an obvious or predictable pun or play on words and usually judged to be endearingly corny on unfunny.”
Now, there’s a part of me that fears “Dad jokes” could be an effort to wrest away the dignity of fathers by making us sound dumb or simple.
That’s my conspiracy theory for the day.
These “Dad jokes” really started to thrive on social media about 2017.
The birthdate of “Dad jokes” seems to go back to 1987 though, when a columnist wrote in the Gettysburg Times a feature “Don’t Ban the Dad Jokes”.
The typical reaction to a “Dad joke” is either an eye-roll, a groan or a “look-to-the ground-and-shake-your-head” move.
M theory regarding those reactions is because the “hearer of the Dad joke” is thinking, “Why couldn’t I come up with that or be that clever and witty?”
By the way, the term “Dad joke” made it into our dictionaries in 2019.
I’m sure you noted that the “Dad joke” definition mentioned the word “pun” a few times.
A “pun” is “a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.”
They tend to be just a bit more cerebral.
“Puns” can also be referred to as a “play on words”, “word play”, “double entendre”, “double meaning” or “innuendo”.
Isn’t that last one Italian for suppository?
Gotcha!
Puns can be traced back to Roman playwright and comedian Plautus.
There are numerous sub-species of puns; homophonic, homographic, homonymic, compounded, recursive, visual’ paronomastic, metonymic, sylleptic/heteronymic and antanaclasis.
Generally speaking, puns can be a little more involved or “wordy’ than Dad jokes but they are closely related.
Allow me to alternate between “Dad jokes” and “puns” so you can stroll the “used car lot of humor” and compare them.
Dad joke – What does a lemon say when answering the phone.? YELLOW
Pun – I’m addicted to brake fluid. IT’S OKAY BECAUSE I CAN STOP ANY TIME.
Dad joke – What do bed bugs and the Eiffel Tower have in common? THEY’RE BOTH PARIS-SITES
Pun – A bear walks into a bar and says to the bartender, “I’ll have a rum…………….and a coke. The bartender asks, “What’s with the big pause?” The bear shrugs, I WAS BORN WITH THEM
Dad joke – I’m reading a horror story in Braille. Something bad is gonna happen. I CAN FEEL IT
Pun – What did one eye say to the other. “Just between you and me” SOMETHING SMELLS.
Dad joke – My friend claims he glued himself to his autobiography. I don’t believe him but it’s his story AND HE’S STICKING TO IT
Pun – I went to a dog show recently. A Yorkie took “Best in Show”, a Jack Russell came in second and a Scotty was 3rd. I think the judges may have had an ALL TERRIER MOTIVE
Dad joke – Why couldn’t the little boy get in to see the pirate movie? It was rated ARRGH
Pun – Did you hear about the school that voted to change its’ mascot? They wanted to be progressive and have a female mascot. They came up with 3 choices. A female sheep. A female goat. A female deer. After a long campaign and a series of debates, the vote was unanimous. THE STUDENTS ONLY HAD AYES FOR EWE
I think we need more “:Dad jokes” and “puns” to get us all to lighten up a bit.
Besides, all that groaning and eye-rolling and head-shaking can be a pretty good workout.
You did know “Johnny-on-the-Spot” is a popular name for portable toilet companies.