The 'dad joke'. As pure and poetic as the haiku in terms of structure. But as lame and corny as golf shirts, khaki shorts and wearing flip flops with socks.
There's no in-between when it comes to the 'dad joke'; they're either really bad or really bad that it's ridiculous. But, no matter which side of the quality spectrum the 'dad joke' falls on, they're all cringy.
I was too lazy to do research into the origin of the 'dad joke', but I'm sure it began when a reluctant father, whose childhood dreams of success and riches was shattered by the reality of marriage and parenthood, blurted out a low hanging pun on a whim to keep an annoying kid entertained. The kid was so blown away by the elementary wordplay that they asked the father to "do another one!". The father, now realizing he's trapped in a downward spiral, came up with more low standard play on words to keep the kid occupied so it didn't destroy another part of the house.
The kid's amused reaction to these 'jokes' then gave the father the false sense that they were actually good, and he decided to share them with his fellow fathers around the neighborhood. The fellow fathers all died laughing at the 'jokes', but not because they were good, but because they were awful. And the father telling the 'jokes' was oblivious to how awful they actually were.
The fellow fathers then relayed the jokes to their respected families, whom all reacted with the same laugh of pity, and thus the viral sensation of the so-bad-it's-good 'dad joke began.
I completely made up that 'dad joke' origin story and there's an 85% chance that none of that actually happened.
Anyway, I collected some interesting 'dad jokes' from the internet, and I got an actual dad to rate the quality of the 'jokes'. Check out the 'Day Drinking with Coleman" highlight video above and see how these 'dad jokes' rank.