Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. The so-called dad jokes get a bad rep online, and it’s understandable. We won’t argue that they are notoriously corny, cheesy, and fit the bill of a wisecrack on steroids. It doesn’t help that these are often the reason why kids avoid parents when they’re with their friends out and about in the wild. But what if I told you it’s not a bad thing?

Turns out, there are studies that prove corny parent jokes, all while being full of potential to embarrass, can teach kids to overcome awkward moments when they become adults themselves.

Kids benefit greatly from parents who role play at home or otherwise offer tools for socializing to their kids by putting them into situations where they can practice their newly acquired means of socializing.

If anything—a bit of a devious approach, but one that definitely will show that you love and care for your dad—turn those jokes back at them on Father’s day. Heck, or any other day! Humor doesn’t discriminate chronologically. And sure, you might not embarrass your dad the same way he can embarrass you, but they’ll definitely pick up on the corn and appreciate it all the more.

Anywho, moms and dads online range from get out to mad lad savage in their humor. But it’s all in good fun in the end.

Kid says he doesn’t know what he wants to eat? Serve a bowl of IDK. Son wants to propose? Be there in the background with a sign pleading for the partner to say no. Daughter turns 18? Surprise her with the scariest pumpkin ever—because nothing is scarier than real life.

Laughter is good all around. In their younger years, kids benefit from humor in terms of intelligence, general health and coping with life’s challenges. If anything, it allows them to connect with their parents and that’s always nice.

And depending on their age, different kinds of humor tickle their funny bone: tickles and raspberries for infants, physical humor for toddlers, incongruity and bathroom humor with preschoolers and basic wordplay, exaggerations and slapstick for school-age kids. Most importantly, it has to be unexpected. That’s the key to humor in general.

Humor and laughter in the years following childhood and adolescence is just as important as it was before. There’s evidence that laughter boosts the immune system, lowers stress and decreases pain, gives a more positive look on life and improves mood, strengthens psychological resilience, helps with social matters and empowers bonding (personal, corporate, etc.), among many other things. After all, it’s better to hang around someone who’s genuinely funny rather than a complete buzzkill.

Now, you might think that not everyone is funny, but, one, it’s a key people skill, which quite likely means everyone is good at it to some level and, two, everyone can learn it. And you’d be surprised how far the basics can go.

First up, give the opposite answer to yes or no questions. If someone is asking you a question and hints at their expectation of what you might say, surprise them with the opposite answer and break their expectations.

Next, what you want to do is play with your numbers. Exaggerate them, say it’s nothing or tiny, but you still end up revealing an extremely contradicting number (like saying you’ve played a game a bit, but your record shows 1,600 hours in).

Another way of approaching it is to hype up (or the opposite) something that is absolutely not what it is and then deliver the real answer for comedic effect. You know, “what do I win?” – “oh, you won some badges… um, a blue ribbon… 10 million dollars…” Now extend across several minutes.

There’s also tactics like using the rule of three, with the last one being an unexpected, unrelated piece of nonsense to deliver your point home; switching characters whereby if someone is trying to pin something comedic on you, you can casually retarget it to the next person; or surprise folks with an unexpected “whatever” if stuff gets ugly.

But do keep in mind that real life stories are always better than jokes, so if you have those, whip them out!

Now, if this isn’t enough for you, be aware that parents have always been funny on the internet and Bored Panda is definitely a place to check some examples out.

But if that’s not something you want to get into, then why not leave us a comment with your stories and takes and then go do whatever that’s so important that you have to leave… or whatever.