Dads may be the kings of corny puns, but they’re also the masters of making kids laugh. From classics to new side-splitting jokes, these hilarious dad jokes are sure to make the whole family LOL. Share them with your dads on Father’s Day, during a road trip or when you just need a good laugh.

What’s the difference between a dad and a regular joke? A dad joke has to be intentionally corny. It’s got to be so cheesy that you can almost hear the joke-teller’s father voice in your head. A regular joke can be funny if it’s just unexpected or clever. A dad joke has to be both of those things and also cheesy.

A dad joke is a specific sub-genre of cringe comedy. Like cringe comedy, a dad joke is a form of humour that works by evoking a sense of embarrassment in its audience. The difference is that, whereas the audience of a cringe comedy joke are the people being mocked, the ultimate target of a dad joke is the joke-teller himself or herself.

The reason that dad jokes are often labelled as being specifically “dad” is that they’re used to teasingly annoy and embarrass their children in a way that can be seen as a kind of weaponised anti-humour (Hye-Knudsen, 2022). In this sense, they serve an important pedagogical function by showing their kids how much embarrassment they can handle, which may prove useful for them later in life when they have to deal with the very real and inevitable challenges that come with growing up. funny dad jokes