Snowplows & Dad Jokes--Oh My!

I want to begin with a question for you. Why do names for snowplows like Darth Blizzard and Scoop Dogg get so much love and attention while the humble Dad Joke gets the eye roll? Both bits of humor rely on the same types of wordplay, but one is has its praises sung in articles, while the other is generally bemoaned?

The role of the Dad Joke in our culture is quite interesting. It’s a relatively recently named phenomenon, having really only achieved wider cultural notoriety in the past couple decades. As a dad of more than 20 years, I find myself using Dad Jokes at times. I wouldn’t say I’m a prolific user of dad jokes, but I won’t miss an opportunity to mess with my kids by landing a groaner every now and again. While I have gotten a few laughs, generally the response is one of groans, a sarcastic “Really!” or the eye roll. My Dad Jokes tend to be on the spot ones punning on something current. I don’t really have ones that I keep on hand to tell because I don’t like the canned feel of those sorts. That’s why I’m not giving you an example. That sort of Dad-Joker I am not.

But let’s have a look and compare a couple. One of my favorites is “Three guys walk into a bar. The fourth one ducks.” I love this one for a couple of reasons. It’s pretty much a one-liner. It’s also pretty tight. It also happens to be a riff on the “…walks into a bar” joke-type. While this one will often net a couple laughs, it’s still considered a Dad Joke. It’s a pretty simple pun playing on the double-meaning of the word ‘bar.’ I like it because I often have to visually explain it to people who simply don’t get the joke. They can’t shake the idea of bar meaning a place to drink. This one doesn’t always get groans, but it tends not to be one that people think of as comic genius either. Dad jokes don’t get the love, but other puns, wordplay humor, like the kind we see in the snowplow naming contests do.

I have to say, I love the snow plow naming contests. I’ve not ever entered one, but the results are pretty good. There are many snowplow names out there, but here are two that caught my fancy. “Scoop! There it is!” and “Truck Norris” are two I though pretty good—but there are others. I thought maybe you could do one called Plow Patrol and riff off the children’s show with a fleet of them. But I think I need to step up my game before I enter the next contest. So why do the snow plows get the love and Dad-Jokes the abuse? There are a couple of things, important to most uses of humor, that may help us.

The first thing to notice is that the Snowplow names are original while Dad Jokes tend to play on words and ideas were quite familiar with. The wordplay in Dad Jokes is pretty basic. It may be hilarious for a young child, but to a person familiar with the language and a joking dad, the wordplay will not be new. Good jokes tickle us, in part, because we’re not expecting the punch-line. With Dad-jokes, we can anticipate the punchline before we hear it, or the joke is boring, that is, we know we should “have seen it coming.” When jokes are basic or expected, we lose that frisson of fun/mirth that often comes with humor. It’s not the mechanism, wordplay, that’s at fault and thus driving the negative reaction. It’s the lack of creativity, novelty, or originality the joke has that makes it bad.

This is different in the world of fun snowplow names. While we’re obviously familiar enough with the ideas and words to find them funny (if not we’d be confused) the novel setting we find the wordplay deployed in makes all the difference. The space is open and unsullied. There’s freedom to make all the jokes we want. The jokes can be plays on song titles e.g. Bringin’ Pavement Back, to historical nods like Clearopathra, and a simple word mash-up like Plowabunga. The point is to be creative, playful, and fun. The realm of Dad Jokes isn’t seen to be the place where you find the best of creativity.

Why Dad-Jokes are supposed to be bland, unoriginal, or boring possibly says more than I wish to admit about Dads. Being one myself, I am not happy about that. Why Dads are thought of as boring is an interesting bit of cultural research that needs doing. But maybe one of you readers could revive the ol’ Dad-Joke. Place some of your best and worst Dad-Jokes, or Snowplow names in the comments. Till next time, laugh often and much.