Scientists say listeners who hear groan-inducing puns are actually GRATEFUL for the gags

We’ve all rolled our eyes or shook our heads at a pun-filled ‘dad joke’, but the truth is we secretly love them, a study has suggested. 

In fact emitting a ‘groan’ is not a negative response, but ‘indicative of approval’, surprised researchers discovered. 

The study at Northern Illinois University in the US probed nearly 300 people on their preferred style of jokes – both to give and receive – while also asking each respondent to take a personality test. 

It had hoped to discover whether those who ‘punished’ their friends and loved ones with a groan-worthy play on words were ‘everyday sadists’. 

Stand-up comedian Jimmy Carr (pictured) is famed for his hilarious ‘punny’ one-liners

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Emitting a ‘groan’ after a pun is not a negative response, but ‘indicative of approval’, surprised researchers discovered (Pictured: Pun-loving jokester Milton Jones) 

But according to the results, pun-tellers were not sadistic, and receivers were actually grateful, as puns were among the most popular jokes to hear.

It’s punderful news for comedians such as Jimmy Carr, Milton Jones or Tim Vine, who are all known for their hilarious one-liners.

It’s bad news for their US-based countryman and political pun-dit John Oliver, however, who once branded them ‘not just the lowest form of wit, but the lowest form of human behaviour.’

Samuel Johnson, author of the 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, also had a scathing review of the wordplay, once famously writing: ‘To trifle with the vocabulary which is the vehicle of social intercourse is to tamper with the currency of human intelligence… He who would violate the sanctities of his Mother Tongue would invade the recesses of the paternal till without remorse.’

They are part of a long list of naysayers who have openly declared their disdain for the style of joke. 

‘We had many sources denouncing puns as bastards of language and derailers of conversation, so we assumed punsters could cause aggravation much like internet trolls,’ author of the recent study Cody Gibson, of Northern Illinois University told the Times. 

It’s punderful news for comedians such as Jimmy Carr, Milton Jones or Tim Vine (pictured), who are all known for their hilarious one-liners

‘We were shocked to find people liked puns to the extent they did…Out of almost ten types of jokes, puns and observational jokes were the most enjoyed.’ 

He added: ‘I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a pun receive a reaction stronger than a chuckle, but maybe that suggests more about me than puns… We would like to propose puns are told for, not despite, pained reactions.’

He said he hoped puns become more appreciated and used by more people, as it’s ‘unfair to limit puns to just dads’. 

Pun-intentionally sadistic: is punning a manifestation of everyday sadism?, was published in Personality and Individual Differences, an Elsevier journal.