I Adore The Infamous Dad Jokes!

We’ve all heard of them before. The style of telling jokes that only your uncool dad would dare to tell! After it’s told, you groan and roll your eyes because it was so lame, corny, obvious or out of touch with current times. As for me? I love them! In fact, the cornier the better! I find the play on words to be rather clever and lighthearted. In my opinion, jokes don’t need to be some flashy or well thought out line. It just needs to be able to get the punchline across in a way where you understand it and can possibly even relate to it. Not everyone is a total stand up comedian charming audiences from all walks of life. However, I cherish those who can lighten a mood, break the ice and are genuinely trying to spread joy and make people smile. The joke itself is funny to me and the essence behind the joke simply make me happy!

We all grow up and learn to go through life in all seriousness. Bills, taxes, debt, politics, switching to gluten free… these are not fun, but they are things we encounter every day that seem to suck the life out of us! After you’ve crossed the threshold into adulthood, life becomes serious, and nothing is as fun or funny as it used to be when we were kids. We get up, go to work, slave away, battle traffic, schedule a workout, watch our diet, and somehow within all that chaos adults have forgotten to stop taking themselves so damn seriously and just laugh for crying out loud! Laughter is good medicine for the soul after all and I guarantee if you laugh often enough you will develop a 6 pack under that layer of fat you can’t seem to get rid of!

I honestly believe that this is why a majority of us become depressed and seek therapy because we think that there is some big puzzle piece missing in our lives. After years of conditioning ourselves into “adulting” and taking life as seriously as possible, we forget how to loosen up and relax. Then suddenly when we hear a joke that kind makes one feel like “duh”, people roll their eyes and get upset saying, “That was so lame” or “That wasn’t funny at all!” People think it’s lame because they take even a little joke too seriously! I feel like those who don’t take themselves so seriously and discover a more playful and goofy side to themselves will find the humor in almost anything! To me, the only time a joke isn’t funny is if the punchline is dull and completely lost on me. I mean, you can’t laugh at something you don’t understand right? Another instance is when the timing and topic of a joke is inappropriate or far too morally insensitive (joking about someone’s death the day after they die is crazy!).

So, why is it that we equate certain types of jokes to Dad’s? Why is it that our very own fathers are the ones more likely to chime in with a lame remark or a story we might feel embarrassed about? Perhaps, when you’re the man of the house and you’re the one that works hard to provide, the one who everyone looks to for answers, the one expected not to panic in difficult situations… perhaps they are the ones that need to laugh the most and he just wants those he cares about to laugh right along with him. Perhaps this is a father’s way of loosening up after a day of being so dead serious all the time. It’s his way of connecting with us and showing that he cares in the best way he knows how.

Maybe that’s one reason I love dad jokes so much. Their love of bringing humor to the table even when we never asked for it. I always found them to be incredibly funny, and as a child I was almost always the only kid in my age group to laugh hysterically right along with the joke teller. The other kids would ask, “Why are you laughing? That wasn’t even that funny!” Well, just because it isn’t funny to YOU doesn't mean that it wasn’t to me! This could be a testament to the fact that I don’t always take things so seriously and my brain naturally tries to find meaning and understanding in other peoples’ words. With all of that being said, I’d like to share one of my favourite jokes. I’d like to think of this one as an extended dad joke as it is a bit longer than the average 2 liners we’re all used to hearing. Anytime someone asks me to tell a joke, I always have this one in my arsenal and it goes like this:

There are 2 men waiting in line at the gates to heaven when one strikes up a conversation with the other.

Man 1: So how did you die?

Man 2: I froze to death actually.

Man 1: That’s awful! How did it feel to freeze to death?

Man 2: Well, it’s very uncomfortable at first. You get the shakes, and you get pains in all your fingers and toes. But eventually, it's a very calm way to go. You get numb and you kind of drift off, as if you're sleeping. How about you, how did you die?

Man1: You see, I suspected that my wife was cheating on me. So, I came home early from work one day and ran up to the bedroom to find her alone… reading. Then I ran down to the basement, but no one was hiding there. I ran up to the second floor and searched the living room, the kitchen, EVERYWHERE but no one was hiding there either! Finally, I ran as fast as I could to the attic as it was the only place left the bastard could hide and just as I got there, I had a massive heart attack and died!

The second man, shook his head and chuckled.

Man 2: That’s so ironic!

Man 1: What do you mean? How so?

Man 2: Well… while you were in the kitchen, if you had just stopped long enough to check the deep freezer, we’d BOTH still be alive right now!

I hope this blog post gave you a chance to laugh even for a moment! If you love jokes as much as I do, I’d love to hear them the next time you book me! I’d love to see your eyes light up as you tell it and the excitement building up as you lead up to the punchline! Life is too short to feel the need to take it so seriously all the time. I encourage you to let loose, have some fun and laugh your ass off every now and then!

Cheers!