FOR SALE My Catalog of Dad Jokes

Once your kid stops laughing at "Why didn't Han Solo enjoy his steak dinner? It was Chewie!" it's time to move on

- Gary Rudoren

I STILL REMEMBER THE first time I told my then-six-year-old son, Lev, that a clam makes calls with its 'shell phone. The laugh of recognition when he first got the joke was a moment I won't ever forget. When I told it a second time in front of his friends Henry and Amir, I could see how proud he was that I had made his friends laugh. Excuse the bragging, but I was the cool dad.

By Lev's ninth birthday party, things had begun to change. After the seventh or eighth time I asked him "What do you call someone with no body and no nose?" he dismissively rolled his eyes. "I get it, Dad..."

"... Nobody knows!"

"Stop it, Dad!"

I immediately shifted gears into food puns, reminding him and his friends that melons have weddings because they 'cantaloupe, but I got nothing except head shakes and averted eyes. I'm pretty sure I heard him say "Sorry about my dad" to his friends as they all ran off to play on their phones together.