Groan worthy: Psychologists study 32,500 dad jokes...to figure out exactly what makes the cheesy puns fly or flop

Published: 00:27, 17 May 2026 | Updated: 00:27, 17 May 2026 When does a joke become a dad joke? When it's fully groan... Normally based on corny puns or taking phrases way too literally, such cheesy gags amuse and irritate in equal measure.  But now academics have figured out precisely what can make a dad joke fly – or flop. Psychologists studied no fewer than 32,533 examples culled from the internet – though, perhaps wisely, they used AI to help analyse how they worked rather than enduring each groan-inducing punchline themselves. Defining dad joke as 'short, clean, affable and non-offensive' they found that the most successful were on topics including nature, hospitals and money – while those mentioning celebrities, politics or God were more likely to bomb.  In one experiment, around 600 people were asked to rate the funniness of a number of jokes. The top three turned out to be:  Normally based on corny puns or taking phrases way too literally, such cheesy gags amuse and irritate in equal measure (stock image) Dr Paul Silvia of the University of North Carolina, who led the study, said: 'Just like the cops searching for the criminals who stole the wheels from their patrol car, we have worked tirelessly to identify the comedic features of dad jokes and the kinds of people who enjoy them. My dad asked me if I was an organ donor. He's a man after my own heart. The book I ordered about clocks finally came in. It's about time  l Why do Norwegian battleships have barcodes painted on them? So they can Scandinavian.  I was annoyed when my wife gave me a coffin for my birthday. I said, 'This is the last thing I need.  'Our study shows that dad jokes are compact and short, clean and affable, usually two sentences at most. Basically, anytime someone makes a corny, adorable joke (most often a pun), that's a dad joke. 'Dad jokes should be inclusive, appropriate, and non-offensive. They aren't religious or political, and they rarely have any reference to death or violence.' And who is more likely to find them funny? Men, pet owners, parents, higher educated people, those with more money, religious folk and conservatives, according to Dr Silvia's paper The Psychology Of Dad Jokes. He and his colleague Meriel Burnett, from the University of Massachusetts, broke the puns down into a bewildering array of categories.  The most annoying type are so-called 'pedantic literalisms', using a precise interpretation of a word, such as: 'Did you know deer can jump higher than the average house? It's because the average house can't jump.' Homonym puns play on words with the same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings – an example would be: 'I've started a new job taking care of horses. It provides a stable income.' Homograph puns, which only work written down, play on words with the same spelling but different sounds: 'What makes music heavy metal? A lead singer.' Homophone puns play on words with the same sound but different spelling: 'So long, boiling water. You will be mist.' And heterophonic paronym puns rely on worlds with similar but not identical pronunciation, such as: 'When my wife feels sad I let her colour in my tattoos. She just needs a shoulder to crayon.' The study found that 'the biggest urban legend about humour is that people find puns aversive' – a point of view they say was spread by 'stuffy British men'. The researchers have made their vast database of dad jokes available to fellow academics 'interested in studying humour – or hassling their teenagers'. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.