It was one of John Ripley’s prouder moments as a father.

He texted his daughter, who was on a trip to Europe, and told her not to eat the French fries in Athens. She replied: “Why? Because they’re too Greecey?”

“The best part is when your kids grow up saying they hate your dad jokes, but they end up telling them, too,” said Ripley, 59, of South Portland.

Dad jokes are famous for making kids groan and spouses roll their eyes. But the reasons they’re so belittled — predictable punchlines and obvious but sometimes clever puns — are also why they’re so popular and get retold, again and again. So for Father’s Day, we decided to ask Maine dads, comics, kids, spouses and humor experts about what makes a dad joke a dad joke, and why we love to hate them. In some cases, dad jokes can even serve to inspire, believe it or not.

“My dad loves dad jokes and that really was my introduction to comedy and making people laugh,” said Ian Stuart, 39, a Maine-based comedian and founder of the Portland Maine Comedy Festival. “Even if it makes people gasp or roll their eyes, it’s connecting with them. If you’re making any attempt at humor, you’re putting art into the world.”

So remember, Dad, the next time your kids declare that your jokes are “so cringe,” tell them you’re just making art.

ANATOMY OF A DAD JOKE 

Though the phrase “dad joke” has been in use for less than 40 years, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the form has likely existed as long as people have been (or have tried to be) funny.

Dad jokes are so ubiquitous today that if you pick up your iPhone and ask Siri to tell you a joke, you get textbook examples of dad jokes: “What did the pirate say on his 80th birthday? Aye matey”; “Why couldn’t Beethoven find his teacher? Because he was Haydn;” “I don’t get along with car keys. They’re always starting something.”

The dictionary definition of a dad joke is: “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.”

They usually consist of a short intro and an even shorter punchline, says Wayne Federman, a Los Angeles-based comedian who teaches the history of stand-up comedy at the University of Southern California. Dad jokes are basically one-liners, a classic form used by such legendary stand-ups as Henny Youngman and Rodney Dangerfield, Federman says. What they do not have is an elaborate set-up or backstory.

Federman thinks that the dad joke as we know it has evolved over several generations to replace one-liners that made fun of ethnic groups or blonde women or other population segments. Those of us of a certain age remember when lines like “How many Irishmen (or any other group) does it take to screw in a light bulb?” were repeated far and wide, from classrooms to barrooms. But today, dad jokes have replaced stereotype one-liners as society’s favorite joke format, Federman argues.

“When a dad tells a joke, everybody rolls their eyes and groans, so the dad is becoming the butt of the joke,” said Federman. “Nobody is going to get offended at a dad joke.”

As a student and teacher of comedy, Federman thinks that dad jokes are often very clever, even though they have a reputation as being dumb or too obvious. Among the several examples Federman cited to prove his point included “Sometimes I wake up grumpy. Sometimes I let her sleep in” and “Ever try archery blindfolded? You don’t know what you’re missing.”

EMBRACE THE FAUX PA

One big misconception about dad jokes is that they have to be told by a dad.

“I don’t think you have to be a dad at all,” said John Ater, 64, a house painter by day and comedian by night, who lives in Bath. “The jokes have to be kind of obvious. It’s basically the simplest form of a joke. And no matter what you hear, people love them.”

Ater will be performing Sunday as part of a “Dad Jokes” showcase for Fathers’ Day at Empire Comedy Club, at 7 p.m. All the comedians scheduled are dads, but they are not required to tell only dad jokes. Ater, who has done some livestreaming on Reddit with his son, actor and musician Max Ater, says that given a choice, people do want to hear dad jokes.

During those Reddit livestreams, Ater says his son would tell the audience to ask his dad anything they want. Most of the people, younger folks especially, wanted a bad joke, Ater said. He took that to mean a dad joke.

A couple of Ater’s favorite examples of the genre include: “I went to my psychiatrist this morning and said ‘In the morning I feel like I’m a wigwam and at night I feel like I’m a teepee. Do you think I’m too tents?” and “Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything.”

Ater’s been telling dad jokes as long as he can remember, and he feels a certain sense of pride in the fact that both his children, now in their 30s, have a great sense of humor. His son Max Ater says he liked growing up with “the silly dad,” the one known by people for being funny and for making people laugh. But he didn’t always show his appreciation.

“I would definitely roll my eyes, but not because he wasn’t funny,” said Max Ater, 32.”I’d hear a joke and think ‘This is the thirteenth time I’ve heard it this week.’ His sense of humor is magical, but the jokes can get a little tiring.”

Though anyone can tell a dad joke, even that simple action can be a dad joke. As Ripley pointed out:  “Just remember if you tell one of these jokes and you’re not a dad, it’s a faux pa.”

Ripley, who works as protocol officer for the Navy’s Supervisor of Shipbuilding in Bath, knows how important it is to be consistent when it comes to dad jokes. During the first year of the COVID pandemic, he wrote a different dad joke daily in washable marker on the front window of his South Portland home. He lives near the landmark ice cream stand Red’s Dairy Freeze, so even during the pandemic there was a lot of foot traffic. He got the idea from reading in the Washington Post about a guy who did the same thing.

Some of his window-worthy jokes during the pandemic included: “The Lego store re-opened. People are lining up for blocks;” “Don’t buy Velcro. It’s a rip off’;” and “Poop jokes are not my favorite. But they are a solid #two.”

Ripley thinks dad jokes are a time-honored tradition that gets passed down from parent to child. He says he comes from a long line of people who were smart alecks and who loved “whimsical, strange humor.” That’s why he’s done his best to pass his dad joke sensibilities to his children.

Bryan McLeod of Westbrook says his penchant for dad jokes came from his father, but since becoming a dad himself, he finds that they provide “little teachable moments” because of the word play and because they make kids think (as well as groan and roll their eyes). McLeod, 45, who works as a legal underwriter, says he thinks that most dad jokes are for kids 5 and up, based on the word play.

Just the other day he said to his 8-year-old daughter, River Smalley, “I don’t trust stairs. They’re always up to something.”

Whether River will carry on the dad joke tradition herself someday remains to be seen.

“Sometimes it’s funny, other times it’s lame,” said River, of her father’s dad jokes. “Sometimes when he tells a joke, Mommy doesn’t think it’s funny, but most of the time she does.”