We have a family tradition, as we head to a picnic, I tell my daughter: "I really don't like eating under those trees. She asks me in a rehearsed tone: "But why, dad?" and then I reply "They just seem kind’a shady." The same Joke was told to me by someone elder in my family. The tradition continues and so does the tradition of what we term as Dad Joke or a PJ in the Indian context. In this case, this is literally a dad joke in my family. In recent years, the mass-sharing capabilities of the internet have facilitated a renewed (eye-rolling, faux-begrudging) appreciation of the dad joke. Dad jokes are simultaneously beloved and maligned, deeply ingrained in the intimacies of family life, and yet universal and public enough to have a hashtag. A specific tone and interpersonal dynamic converge to make a joke a dad joke. When dad jokes get affectionately mocked or mockingly appreciated online, they’re often characterized as ultimately harmless but only barely clever. But if there’s one feature that can immediately categorize a joke as a “dad joke,” it’s wordplay, especially of the unsophisticated variety. That’s why we here in India call it a Poor Joke. Stanley Dubinsky: an English professor, linguist, and co-author of the book: Understanding Language through Humor explains that there’s a particular type of wordplay that gives a joke the dubious distinction of being a dad joke. Polysemy, derived from the Greek terms for “many” and “signs,” is the coexistence of several meanings or uses for the same word. As per Dubinsky, that’s the basis of Dad Joke. “Most jokes rely on some semantic ambiguity or grammatical ambiguity,” Dubinsky says. “The things people call ‘dad jokes’ are the ones where the ambiguity is crushingly obvious.” How these types of jokes got associated with dads, however, is another question: maybe because young kids laugh at anything and as they grow old there’s a sense of loss and nostalgia that sets in for when they were smaller. Also as they grow old one way to disrespect your parents is to note how unsophisticated their humor is. This is across cultures be it the US, Asia, or Africa.
For as loathsome as dad jokes supposedly are, they remain ... surprisingly popular. Their appeal could be rooted in the desire to take a momentary break from an increasingly stressful environment, especially online. The political climate and the polarization of discourse, on social media and elsewhere, have disrupted the way we talk to each other. Dad jokes can be a relief from the viciousness and nihilism of a lot of the other humor that tends to populate social media. As Dubinsky says “It’s sort of like, ‘We’re going to get off this highly polarized, highly agenda-ized humor train and just laugh innocently for a little while: There’s a comfort in that.”
In Maharashtrian Households, wordplay and situational Humor are rated as the highest form of well-being. We have a great tradition of comedians who had adorned literary space. Noted authors and playwrights like Gadkari, P L Deshpande, P K Atre, and many others have created classics that are repeated a numerable amount of times in Houses. In fact in Marathi, a hero was a comedian: One could make the audience laugh. The Quartet of Lakshmikant Berde, Ashok Saraf, Sachin, and Mahesh Kothare revived Marathi film Industry after a lull. Comedy Marathi plays still catch the audience at the theatres. Hindi Movie took time to really acknowledge a comical Hero. Though lead actors like Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, and Amitabh Bacchan did occasional comedy in the real sense comedy was left to character comedians like Mukhri, Johnny Walker, Mehmood, Rajendra Nath, Jagdeep, Asrani and others. Later this trend was picked up by Jonny Lever, and Rajpal Yadav during Khan and Yashraj's era. The new mold of OTT/Multiplex movie stars like Ayushman, Raj Kumar Rao, and Pankaj Tripathy have it in them (Just Like Kishore Kumar), especially in subtle and dark comedy. The Comedian hero reappeared in a real sense to a limited sense. In Hollywood, all Major star and their characters have a comedy streak in them including action characters like James Bond or Maverick. The comedy genre has been enriched by many great movies in Hollywood. Even comedy franchises like Golmaal, Welcome, Housefull, etc have succeeded in the Mainstream. And big budget films need to have good comedy along with Music to be a mega-hit and do multiple hundred crores.
Dad (PJs) Jokes have impacted real lives just as Comedy in Reel /stage/literary life has inspired and acknowledged the role of Comedy in our mundane lives. In real life, we have seen heroism by ex- standup comedian Zelinsky during Ukrainian Crisis. Standup comedy and laughter shows rule the roost on the Television screen interestingly called the Idiot box. Being funny is possibly one of the best things you can do for your health. You can almost think of a sense of humor as your mind's immune system. People at risk of depression tend to fall into depressive episodes when exposed to some kind of negative stimuli, and afterward, it becomes easier and easier for them to relapse into depression. However, reframing a negative event in a humorous light acts as a kind of emotional filter, preventing the negativity from triggering a depressive episode though tragically we have seen a great comedian like Robin Williams succumbing to Depression. People with a sense of Humor have better self-esteem, more positive affect, greater self-competency, more control over anxiety, and better performance in social interactions. Not all kinds of humor are made equal, however. There is negative humor: such as mocking others; and self-defeating humor, in which an individual encourages jokes that have themselves as the target or self-deprecate. It is important to know the boundaries of humor.
Please inculcate some great sense of humor if you want to be a hero in your real life rather in addition to pumping iron in Gymnasium.
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