I Invented The Dad Joke

It's not the claim to fame I want to be known for, but I invented the Dad joke. Find out how in this mini podcast.

Grasshopper Notes are the writings from America's Best Known Hypnotherapist John Morgan. His podcasts contain his most responded to essays and blog posts from the past two decades. 

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"The Grasshopper" is the part of you that whispers pearls of wisdom that  seem to pop into your mind from out of the blue. John's essays and blog posts are his interpretations of these "Nips of Nectar." Others have labeled his writings as timeless wisdom. 

Most of the John's writings revolve around self improvement and self help. They address topics like:

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Transcript

I Invented The Dad Joke

It’s not a claim to fame I want to be known for, but it’s true. I invented the Dad joke.

Let me explain.

Late in 1972 I was hired to work at a radio station in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Two of the conditions of employment were:

1. I had to change my name.
2. I had to tell jokes.

First, why the name change. The program director said I had the choice of two names: Chris Starr or Chuck Taylor. I asked him what was wrong with my name and he said, “Nothing, but we have two jingles that we’ve already paid for with the those names.” So, for 15 months of my radio career, I was Chuck Taylor.

But what about the jokes? The PD said I had to tell jokes during the morning show. I said, “Only (expletive deleted here) tell jokes.” He said, “If you want the job, you have to tell jokes.” He then proceeded to hand me sheets of jokes to consider. I swallowed my pride and accepted the job as the new, joke telling, morning DJ.

That’s just the back story on how I invented the Dad joke. 

One of these joke sheets was called “The Electric Weenie.” Now that’s funny enough, but there weren’t enough jokes on it to do a week’s worth of morning shows. I had to come up with more sources of material. I would go to “Boy’s Life” magazine because they had jokes in there. I also consulted “Highlights” magazine which populated many medical waiting rooms, and also had a joke section. Readers Digest was yet another source. There were some really bad jokes in my repertoire.

I would type them out, first on sheets of paper, and then on 3 x 5 cards which would contain one joke each and the date I told it. I started to store these joke cards in shoe boxes and they got transported from job to job. 

In the first eight years of my radio career, I moved my family eight times and the jokes moved with us. It’s a wonder they didn’t stab me in my sleep.

So what about the my Dad joke claim?

With all the moves, the jokes would get jostled quite a bit and fall out of the boxes. I tasked my sons, on too many occasions to count, to sort the jokes by the dates and put them back into the boxes. That way, I could tell when I last told the joke and would know how long before I could tell it again. I came up with 6 months as the proper time for recycling old jokes.

This chore of sorting of the thousands of jokes was pejoratively named by my boys as “Dad Jokes.” 

To this day, when we gather together, invariable one of my sons will bring up the tedious task of having to sort “Dad Jokes.”

All the best,

John