dad joke

noun

plural dad jokes
informal
: a wholesome joke of the type said to be told by fathers with a punchline that is often an obvious or predictable pun or play on words and usually judged to be endearingly corny or unfunny
He's seen the annual event grow from an Austin oddity to a national event and watched dad jokes, of which puns are the most obvious example, take hold in the millennial consciousness; a dad-joke-devoted Reddit board boasts more than 250,000 members.Peter Rubin
The dad jokes really started pouring in during the later years of Obama's presidency, when the annual turkey pardoning became fertile grounds for embarrassing the now teenage Malia and Sasha. And what better way to do that than with some corny puns about turkeys named Mac and Cheese?Mashable

Examples of dad joke in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web From there things seemed to be smooth sailing, with all the dad jokes, costume puns, clue packages, and performances (good and bad) fans have come to expect from the show. Lauren Huff, EW.com, 6 Mar. 2024 There are plenty of dad jokes and moments of slapstick humor. Bryan West, USA TODAY, 6 Feb. 2024 Blue wore custom Vivienne Westwood and smiled gamely throughout Jay-Z’s sweet and corny dad jokes (as well as his explicit criticism of the Recording Academy for never giving Beyoncé album of the year), clinching her status as the world’s coolest 12-year-old. Emma Specter, Vogue, 5 Feb. 2024 But Tamron Hall went one step further and pit the two comedians (and dads) against one another in a dad joke battle. Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 14 Sep. 2023 The film, chronicling eight years, combats harmful stereotypes about those doing time, but includes enough dad jokes to lighten the mood. Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 18 Jan. 2024 Then again, most dads don’t create their own dad jokes, either. Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 8 Dec. 2023 There’s a surplus of what might politely be called strained dad jokes. Chris Vognar, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2023 The couple's two children (and Liza) have often been the butt of Conan's dad jokes on social media. Kaitlin Stevens, Peoplemag, 24 Sep. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dad joke.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1987, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of dad joke was in 1987

Dictionary Entries Near dad joke

Cite this Entry

“Dad joke.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dad%20joke. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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