What Were the Winners in Best Dad Joke Contest?
A cringe-worthy pun about a limousine has been named the winner of a competition to find the best dad joke.
The concept of a "dad joke"—a kind of joke that is purposely so unfunny or embarrassing it becomes funny again—has seen a rise in popularity and appreciation in recent years.
There are a host of books that claim to offer the best (read: exceptionally bad) dad jokes, with several Twitter accounts dedicated to the format.
One of the biggest, @Dadsaysjokes, currently has more than 295,000 followers on Twitter, and on the Facebook page Dad Jokes, celebrities have a "showdown" for who can tell the best dad joke followed by more than 1.2 million people on Facebook.
For Father's Day this year, a supermarket chain launched a nationwide competition in the U.K to find the best dad joke to celebrate the occasion.
Those wanting to take part in the competition, run by Supermarket chain Aldi's baby and toddler brand, Mamia, tweeted their jokes along with the hashtag #BestDadJoke. British comedian Mark Watson then reviewed more than 2,700 entries before deciding on the overall winner.
The winning entry was for the competition submitted by Austin May from Bedworth, Warwickshire. May's joke read:
"I once hired a limo but when it arrived, the guy driving it walked off! I said 'Excuse me? Are you not going to drive me?' The guy told me that the price didn't include a driver so I spent £400 ($552) on a limo and have nothing to chauffeur it!"
For his effort, May was awarded £100 worth of Aldi vouchers.
In September 2019, Merriam-Webster added the term dad joke to the dictionary and listed the definition as 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."
Social media was awash with dad jokes for Father's Day, with Bestofsquareenix pitching in with, "What do you call a cheese that isn't yours? Nacho cheese!"
Jonathan Easton posted a selection, including: "I backed a horse last week at 10 to 1. It came in at quarter past four."
Another was: "Which computer has the best voice? A Dell."
Not to be left out, mom jokes are also growing in popularity, with this a favorite online: "Son: "Mom, can I get $20?" Mom: "Does it look like I'm made of money?" Son: "Well, isn't that what M.O.M stands for?"
Explaining his love for the format, Watson said: "The perfect dad joke has got to be equal parts cringe and cheese—it's got to make your kids embarrassed to be in the same room as you but still make them laugh.
"It's a fine balance! When judging this competition, I was keeping an eye out for those jokes that were so bad, they were actually good—you don't have to be a dad to tell a dad joke, but I think telling some truly awful ones really is a rite of passage when becoming a dad."
Other entries which Watson enjoyed included:
- 1. Why did the man fall down the well? Because he didn't see that well!
- 2. What did the pirate say on his eightieth birthday? "Aye Matey!"
- 3. Someone has glued my pack of cards together—I don't know how to deal with it.
- 4. What do you call a zombie who cooks stir fries? Dead man wok-ing.
- 5. I was wondering why the frisbee kept looking bigger and bigger, and then it hit me.
- 6. I was stood behind a customer at an ATM and he turned around and said "could you check my balance?"—so I pushed him. His balance wasn't that great.
- 7. Why did the scarecrow get an award? Because he was out standing in his field!
- 8. What did the daddy buffalo say to his son when he left for work? Bison.
- 9. Two guys walked into a bar. The third guy ducked.
- 10. What do you call a blind dinosaur? A Doyouthinkhesaurus!
Update, 6/20/21, 11.50 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include more information.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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