The world’s best dad joke can be revealed after thousands of “funny” fathers battled it out in a competition that was no laughing matter.

More than 2,700 gag-loving dads submitted their very best – or worst – jokes in celebration of Father’s Day.

#BestDadJokes was trending on Twitter as fathers battled it out to win the Aldi Mamia Best Dad Joke competition.

Stand-up comedian Mark Watson was enlisted to judge the competition and picked father-of-two Austin May from Bedworth, Warwickshire, as the overall winner.

His winning joke was:

I once hired a limo but when it arrived, the guy driving it walked off!
I said “Excuse me? Are you not going to drive me?”
The guy told me that the price didn’t include a driver…
… so I’d spent £400 on a limo and have nothing to chauffeur it!

Among Mark’s other favourite entries were:
• Why did the man fall down the well? Because he didn’t see that well!
• What did the pirate say on his eightieth birthday? “Aye Matey!”
• Someone has glued my pack of cards together – I don’t know how to deal with it.
• What do you call a zombie who cooks stir fries? Dead man wok-ing
• I was wondering why the frisbee kept looking bigger and bigger, and then it hit me
• I was stood behind a customer at an ATM and he turned around and said “could you check my balance?” – so I pushed him. His balance wasn’t that great.
• Why did the scarecrow get an award? Because he was out standing in his field!
• What did the daddy buffalo say to his son when he left for work? Bison
• Two guys walked into a bar. The third guy ducked.
• What do you call a blind dinosaur? A Doyouthinkhesaurus!

Explaining what makes the ideal dad joke, Watson said: “The perfect dad joke has got to be equal parts cringe and cheese – it’s got to make your kids embarrassed to be in the same room as you but still make them laugh. It’s a fine balance!

“When judging this competition, I was keeping an eye out for those jokes that were so bad, they were actually good.

“You don’t have to be a dad to tell a dad joke, but I think telling some truly awful ones really is a rite of passage when becoming a dad.”

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