A wise man once said, “There’s a fine line between a numerator and a denominator.”
That man was probably a dad, because that’s a classic example of the humor we love to hate — the dreaded dad joke.
When does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent.
Equal parts clever and corny, the dad joke usually is short and sweet, often blending observational humor with a play on words in a way that makes the hearer laugh and groan at the same time.
Dad humor has been on trend for a few years now, so it’s fitting we give it a little attention on Father’s Day.
In a 2019 essay in The New York Times, writer Jason Zinoman says dad joke-telling evolves from fathers employing physical humor to amuse their infant children. It progresses into the simple (often scatological) humor toddlers enjoy. And finally, it becomes a defense as those children grow and find everything associated with their parents to be lame.
Part of the joke
“The appeal of a dad joke is that failure is baked in,” says Pittsburgh comedian Bill Crawford, co-host of “The DVE Morning Show” on 102.5 FM. “The fear of a joke not working is removed, because you are telling them to your kids or family. If they don’t get it or think it’s funny, that becomes part of the joke.”
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Though comedy is his livelihood, Crawford says he isn’t on stage with daughters Kennedy and Emma.
“I’m always trying to do things to make the kids laugh, but for the most part I extract jokes from my family and then tell them to strangers,” he says. “My family is my muse, so I try not to make them my audience. They tell me the jokes, even if they don’t know it.”
But when the dad joke is deployed, it’s often to get a reaction from uncommunicative teens or to defuse tense family situations. The jokes are family friendly, comforting in their familiarity and hark back to more innocent times. Their brevity also is said to appeal to the short modern attention span.
But they’re not necessarily as simple as they seem on the surface, according to Swissvale native, comedian and actor Billy Gardell, who stars in the CBS sitcom “Bob Hearts Abishola.”
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Kids are actually a tougher audience than adults, he says, because you have to work to make sure a joke lands with them.
“You can’t just tell them the jokes you tell on the street corner or in the bar,” he says. “Dad jokes are safe and they don’t hurt. A little corniness breaks the tension.”
‘What time is it?’
An example of a dad joke Gardell told his own son, Will: “What time is it when you go to the dentist? Tooth-hurty.”
At age 17, Will’s humor is evolving, Gardell says. “I hear him on the microphone when he’s playing video games with his friends, joking about things I don’t understand. At that age, it rightly happens. Kids grow up and get better and better with their sarcasm. Your humor changes as you grow.”
But it’s a dad and his jokes that can lay the foundation.
“My dad had a great sense of humor, and that was the greatest gift he gave me,” Gardell says. “I’ve made my entire living on it. My wife says I stole my whole act from him.
“We could trade jabs without being mean,” Gardell says. “His favorite joke, when we’d visit him in Florida, was to tell me to take out the trash. Then he’d yell, ‘Jack, look at the big star taking out the trash!’
“There was no animosity,” he adds. “His humor had a genuousness and kindness. It was just to teach you, don’t take yourself too seriously.”
Gardell says that when he thinks of his father, who passed away about two years ago, “I think of all the laughs we had. It still gets me through some of the dark nights.”
Thanks, dad.
