The best dad jokes are a special kind of family-friendly humor. They walk a fine line between wholesome and corny and are equal parts funny and cheesy. They’re the jokes you hear from your own father or the ones in your favorite movies and TV shows. And they can make your entire family laugh — or groan.
Dad jokes often include a pun or a play on words and are meant to be as silly as possible. They can even be slightly offensive, but not intentionally. This can give them a unique quality that makes them endearing to children and adults alike. And it’s not just the children who find them funny; a recent study found that adults also like them and have similar responses to them as kids do.
Some researchers believe that this is because dad jokes aren’t as threatening to adults as other kinds of humor. Dad jokes are teasing and somewhat embarrassing, but they don’t threaten your self-image in the way that some other types of humor might. In fact, a recent study suggested that fathers are more likely to use humor and teasing in their play with their kids than mothers are.
While this may explain the popularity of dad jokes, it’s important to remember that they’re not just any old kind of joke. They’re different from other types of humor in their execution and structure. While humour generally involves some kind of norm violation, dad jokes are inoffensive and violate only the pragmatic norm against ambiguity.