How can you tell when a joke is a dad joke?

Yep, and they need to be reactive, in-context - not a cold setup.

It's about trolling your kid, tripping up their train of thought.

Puns are an approach - but it's not the pun itself, it's a:) finding a relevant one in realtime and b:) the facepalminess of actually doing so, here, in the middle of an ostensibly serious conversation, then standing around pulling this face.

But more common and usually more effective are unjokes, context switches and category errors.

Q: What has five toes but isn't your foot?

A: My foot.

"Wait, so is this your street here?"

"Nah, it belongs to the council."

Proctor and ramble, captain Nun puns, big Pineapple PP, we are an anti partisan community of dad humorists. The only unwelcome exclusion here are lewdicrous uncle dads.

Let’s end-dad-vor to deliver a punderful assortment of dad jokes! Let’s make sure our dad jokes are as diverse as a buffet - from cheesey one-liners to soup-er satisfying wordplay. We’ll concoct a mix so diverse everyone will be a-maized!

So, is OP gatekeeping Dad Jokes, or did he just slip one in there?

Upvote, you glorious bastard.

I agree, they aren't punny

Leslie Nielsen was the godfather of dad jokes. God, I miss him