I’ll give you an example:
In court someone might say that this is “here” say. But they never call something “there” say. It’s like the phrase is waiting for a definition. The witness “may” say something or “may” do something. But you know what? You never here them the witness “June” say or “February” do anything at all! The Titanic never called a “September day” and in WW2 there was no special day in October.
C’mon! There I say, I January some writing tomorrow, but if I may January that, it means a totally different thing.
The key to a proper dad joke is that it can be thrown out deadpan in a single line, maybe two. You can get by with a little setup of course, but once you’re essentially doing a bit, you’re monologueing, and that’s the opposite of what a dad joke is.
Remember that the classic dad joke is “dad, I’m hungry” “hi hungry, I’m dad”
Not true! I play on words that sound the seem all time and my kids lube it!
So they don’t, but that’s what dads do.