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

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The walls are also lined with books featuring some groan-worthy dad joke titles. —Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 17 Feb. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1987, in the meaning defined above