Dad Jokes and the Deep Roots of Fatherly Teasing

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dad Jokes and the Deep Roots of Fatherly Teasing

AU - Hye-Knudsen, Marc

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Dad jokes, I argue, are a manifestation of a much older fatherly impulse to tease one’s children. On the surface, dad jokes are puns that are characterized by only violating a pragmatic norm and nothing else, which makes them lame and unfunny. Only violating a pragmatic norm and nothing else, however, is itself a violation of the norms of joke-telling, which makes dad jokes a type of anti-humor. Fathers (i.e., “dads”) may in turn seek to embarrass their children by purposively violating the norms of joke-telling in this way, thus weaponizing the lame pun against their children as a type of good-natured teasing. Given their personality profile, it makes sense that fathers should be particularly prone to weap-onize dad jokes teasingly against their children like this, with the phenomenon bearing an illuminating resemblance to the rough-and-tumble play that fathers have engaged their children in since before the dawn of our species.

AB - Dad jokes, I argue, are a manifestation of a much older fatherly impulse to tease one’s children. On the surface, dad jokes are puns that are characterized by only violating a pragmatic norm and nothing else, which makes them lame and unfunny. Only violating a pragmatic norm and nothing else, however, is itself a violation of the norms of joke-telling, which makes dad jokes a type of anti-humor. Fathers (i.e., “dads”) may in turn seek to embarrass their children by purposively violating the norms of joke-telling in this way, thus weaponizing the lame pun against their children as a type of good-natured teasing. Given their personality profile, it makes sense that fathers should be particularly prone to weap-onize dad jokes teasingly against their children like this, with the phenomenon bearing an illuminating resemblance to the rough-and-tumble play that fathers have engaged their children in since before the dawn of our species.

KW - anti-humor

KW - benign violation

KW - dad jokes

KW - evolutionary psychology

KW - fatherhood

KW - humor

KW - puns

KW - rough-and-tumble play

KW - teasing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134735909&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.26613/esic.5.2.248

DO - 10.26613/esic.5.2.248

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2472-9884

VL - 5

SP - 83

EP - 98

JO - Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture

JF - Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture

IS - 2

ER -