When is a joke more than a joke?
When it's a Dad Joke.
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Alien: Romulus is now my second-favorite Aliens franchise movie. (It’s #2 because Alien and Aliens are tied for #1.)
And the filmmakers take a bold swing with the first line of actual character-to-character dialog. It's spoken by the android Andy to his adoptive sister, Rain. And it's not the typical opener for a blockbuster sci-fi horror movie:
Did you hear about the claustrophobic astronaut? He needed space.
Yes, it’s a Dad Joke.
It starts out like a sweetly goofy comic-relief motif. But it becomes something much, much more. Because I find there are depths to the Dad Joke. And those depths come from its contradictions.
I’ll tell you about those contradictions, right after the news...
What’s going on?
- As part of Your Parasite and You's appearance in the HP Lovecraft Film Festival, I had the delight and honor of participating in a Zoom chat with one of the festival producers, Gwen Callahan, and one of the other filmmakers, Max Weiland (Visions of Sonya Greene). It's always wonderful to participate in these chats, and I had a lot of fun speaking with Gwen and Max. You can see the whole thing here.
- The votes are in – for last week's poll about the length of this little newsletter. And most of you were OK with the length of the previous posts. Thanks to everyone who responded.
- And just as a reminder, please feel free to forward this email to anyone and everyone you know. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors. Tell your neighbor's friends, and your friend's neighbors. Forward this thing willy-nilly. I would be incredibly grateful.
First, a confession
I myself am a Dad Jokeist. I have told, do tell, and will unrepentantly continue to tell Dad Jokes.
Like my Dad before me, I have told my children a series of jokes that have been declared “corny,” “groaners,” “dumb,” and of course, “ugh.”
What’s red, green on the top, and hangs off the back of a boat? An outboard radish.
I love that joke. Love it. And I have a degree in English Lit from one of the top universities in the USA.
So why? Why do I subject my kids to the torture and myself to the disdain?
Simple.
Dad Jokes are a relationship
And when I use the term "Dad Joke" I mean that style of pun-laden, groan-inducing humor used by any guardian of a child. You do not have to be a Dad to tell a Dad Joke. And while its practitioners are mostly male, even that isn't a hard and fast rule. Anyone can be a Dad Joker. All you need is someone you care about.
There's a lot of good analyses and definitions of the Dad Joke out there. I like to think of it as two supporting contradictions.
A Dad Joke is a safe place
There is no swearing in a Dad Joke. There is nothing frightening. Just a quick trip to an absurd world as dangerous as a Nerf puppy. It's the kind of joke the kid can memorize and tell to his friends at school without you getting a call from the principal.
So if you are a teller of Dad Jokes, you are also a creator of those safe spaces. Even if the kid finds the jokes corny, a part of them understands what you are creating for them.
A Dad Joke is a safe place that disrupts the status quo
Puns, knock-knock jokes, "what's [adjective] and [verb]s" jokes, they all show the kid that language can be more than just concrete nouns doing verb stuff. Things can have two meanings, three even — sometimes all at the same time.
The Dad Joker is arming their little buddy with an expanded view of reality itself, and giving give them a start on a more sophisticated use of language.
A Dad Joke is an expression of authority —
As the kid gets older, they often ask that you stop with the "terrible" jokes. And just as embarrassing older kids is a joy in itself, continuing to tell Dad Jokes is a gentle way of reminding the kid that they aren't fully grown yet. You still have a say in their behavior (at least in the house). And you still have a say in the kind of jokes told.
A Dad Joke is an expression of authority that makes authority look foolish
Kites only fly when you're holding the string. Kids need a solid base to launch from. They need to know their guardians will have their back. Telling an older kid a Dad Joke provides a sense of consistency. It says, "I'm still here. I'm here to stay."
It also says "And here's how much I love you: I am willing to look like an idiot to see you smile."
A Dad Joke is an expression of love
I learned that Dad Jokes were an expression of love back when I heard them from my Dad as he drove us to the hardware store. (If my Dad needed a 7/8 inch socket to work on the car, he would drive to the hardware store, buy that single 7/8 inch socket, and then drive home. No extra errands, no wandering the aisles. He got things done.)
In Alien: Romulus, we find out why Andy tells so many Dad Jokes, when he reminds Rain:
Andy: I have just one directive. To do what's best for Rain. Your dad wrote it.
Rain: Yeah. That, and too many Dad Jokes.
And it probably took their dad time to program all those Dad Jokes. Why bother?
I think because Rain and Andy's father loved them. And those Dad Jokes were how he could speak to them the rest of their lives, offering a safe space and his enduring love even after he was gone. And he gave them a way to reinforce their own love, using his Dad Jokes as the semaphore flags of their relationship.
Fun things to know and share
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If You Think You Can Hold a Grudge, Consider the Crow (Gift Article) This is why we tell our dogs to leave the crows alone.
These beaches are among LA's favourites. But they're fake What? Fakery? In Los Angeles? [GASP]
The strange and turbulent global world of ant geopolitics | Aeon Essays Ants are amazing. They're like neurons that can walk around and build stuff.
Finding love: Study reveals where love lives in the brain I think it's wondrous that you can actually take a picture of where love lives in our brains – and all the different kinds of love at that.
Over to you
So, sure, there's a lot of facehuggers and Xenomorphs and ick and yuck and yikes in Alien: Romulus. But there is also an adoptive brother and sister using their love to save each other.
With a little help from Dad Jokes.
Until next time, keep joking.
I remain,
Your pal,
Jamie