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Here's a fun fact for you.
给你说件趣事。
I always used to get small shocks whenever I touched metal objects, but it's recently stopped.
我过去触摸金属物体时，总是受到一点儿电击，但最近不这样了。
Obviously, I'm ex-static. No? You're not feeling that one?
很显然，我是排斥静电的。不是吗？你感觉不到吗？
Did you hear the one about the restaurant on the moon?
你有没有听说过月球上的那家餐厅？
Great food, no atmosphere. Yeah, dad jokes!
里面有美味的食物，却没有大气。是的，这些都是老爸笑话。
Whether it's the classic "Hi Hungry, I'm Dad!" or a "tooth hurty" dentist appointment,
不管是经典的“嗨，小饿鬼，我是爸爸！”还是与牙医的“牙痛”预约，
there's something uniquely groan-worthy about the jokes we associate with dads.
这些和爸爸有关的笑话都格外让人厌烦。
Now, it might be tempting to write them off entirely,
把它们全部取消
or like campaign for their eradication from the face of the planet, don't do that to me!
或者发动让它们从地球上消失的运动可能很诱人，不要再对我说了！
Whether you love them or hate them,
不管你喜不喜欢这些笑话，
psychology actually has a pretty good explanation why so-called "dad jokes" exist.
心理学都很好地解释了为什么所谓的“老爸笑话”会存在。
It turns out that they and other kinds of humor, are probably pretty important for developing minds.
事实证明，它们和其他类型的幽默对于发展心智可能非常重要。
Now, there's no technical definition for a dad joke.
“老爸笑话”没有技术定义。
But people tend to think of them as puns that just … aren't very funny.
但人们倾向于认为它们是双关语，只是…不太有趣。
They don't even have to be told by dads; that's just the stereotype.
它们甚至不需要爸爸来说，只是一些陈词滥调。
But here's the thing: people don't tell them for no reason.
但问题是：人们不会无缘无故地说它们。
At some point in a kid's development, they are funny.
在孩子成长的某个阶段，它们很有趣。
Kids have to develop a sense of humor like any other cognitive trait.
孩子们必须培养一种幽默感，它就像任何其他的认知特质一样。
According to psychological theory,
根据心理学理论，
there are four stages of humor development, which are based on age-related cognitive development.
幽默发展有四个阶段，它们都是基于与年龄相关的认知发展。
Before they get to puns, kids enjoy and learn from silly songs and rhymes
孩子们在接触双关语之前，享受并学习一些无聊的歌曲和韵律
and more formulaic jokes like knock-knock jokes.
以及更多的公式化笑话，比如“敲门游戏”。
It's not until the fourth stage, when kids are 7 to 11 years old,
直到第四阶段，孩子7到11岁时，
that they really develop a good enough understanding of the ambiguous and double meanings of words
他们才对词语的歧义和双重含义有了足够的理解，
to enjoy things like puns, riddles, and satire.
能够享受双关语、 谜语和讽刺的乐趣了。
Then shortly after, their appreciation for the art of terrible wordplay peaks.
不久之后，他们对厉害的文字游戏艺术的欣赏达到了顶峰。
Psychologists think that's because our appreciation of jokes
心理学家认为这是因为我们对笑话的欣赏
is relative to how much the concepts they rely on differ from what we understand and expect.
是相对于笑话本身与我们理解和期望的概念差异而言的。
A 1976 study looked at this idea, and found an inverted U-curve for what kids found funny.
1976年的一项研究对这一观点进行了研究，并发现孩子们的兴趣点是一条倒U曲线。
The amount of pleasure they got out of a joke was related to how recently they had mastered the underlying concept.
他们从一个笑话中得到的愉悦与其掌握基本概念的时间远近有关。
Before they understood a concept, like say,
比如，在他们理解一个概念之前，
the double meanings of words, a joke that relied on it wasn't funny.
一个基于单词双重含义的笑话并不好笑。
Jokes were funniest right after they mastered the central idea.
只有在他们掌握了中心思想之后，笑话才最有趣。
And then after a few years, funniness declined. They basically got over the jokes.
几年后，笑话的趣味减少了。他们基本上听完了这些笑话。
So it makes sense late elementary to middle school aged kids are the ones most amused by parental punnery.
所以，小学高年级的学生和初中生最容易被父母的双关语愉悦是有道理的。
By the time they're 12 or so, though,
不过他们到了大约12岁时，
the fact that words can have two meanings is old news, so those jokes just don't seem as funny.
双关语过时了，所以这些笑话不那么有趣了。
Enter the groans and rolled eyes of teenagedom.
此时他们进入到了抱怨和翻白眼的青春期。
That Goldilocks age for pun appreciation might actually be where we got the idea that bad puns are "dad" jokes in the first place.
欣赏双关语的青春期，实际可能是我们第一次知道糟糕的双关语就是“老爸笑话”的时候。
While a person of any gender, age, and parental status can make a bad pun,
任何性别、年龄和有父母身份的人都可能制造一个糟糕的双关语，
parents with kids of a particular age have the best audience for them.
特定年龄的孩子是其父母的最好观众。
And it's not just about appreciation, joke telling, like other forms of parental play,
讲笑话和其他形式的父母游戏一样，不仅仅与欣赏有关，
helps nurture a child's development.
能帮助培养孩子成长。
When psychologists talk about play, they define it as any self-generated activity that's fun and not literal,
心理学家把玩耍定义为任何非文字性的有趣的自发活动，
and it's generally considered to be a crucial part of social and intellectual development.
它通常被认为是社会和智力发育的重要组成部分。
There are a lot of theories around how play contributes to development,
关于游戏如何促进发育的理论有很多，
but broadly speaking, it's believed to be a way to experiment and explore.
但从广义上讲，它被认为是一种实验和探索的方法。
Kids can learn how to make concrete things into abstract ideas,
孩子们可以学习如何把具体事物变成抽象概念，
to role play and solve problems and how to get along with others.
扮演角色、解决问题以及如何与他人相处。
Play essentially acts as first-hand experience,
游戏本质上就是亲身体验，
which kids can learn from, and then apply what they've learned to new scenarios.
孩子们可以从中学习，然后把他们学到的应用到新的场景中。
And puns and other jokes come into all of this because they're a form of verbal play:
双关语和其他笑话也一样，因为它们是一种语言游戏：
play that's centered around speech and language.
以讲话和语言为中心的游戏。
The developmental importance of play might help explain
游戏启发的重要性可能有助于解释
why having a good sense of humor has been linked with social and academic success.
为什么良好的幽默感与社会和学术成就息息相关。
Children with a strong sense of humor tend to have more friends,
有强烈幽默感的孩子往往有更多的朋友，
and studies have shown that peers and teachers alike rate them as more attentive, responsive, popular, and outgoing.
而且研究表明，同龄人和老师都认为他们更专注、有求必应、更受欢迎以及更外向。
So knowing how to kid around is surprisingly important, and learning that starts at home.
所以知道如何与孩子开玩笑非常重要，而且从家里开始学吧。
Even as infants, laughter plays an important role in attachment and helping babies bond with their caregivers.
婴儿时期，笑声在依恋和帮助婴儿与其照顾者之间建立联系方面起着重要的作用。
As kids grow older, their play becomes more sophisticated when their parents are involved in it.
随着孩子年龄的增长，他们的父母参与进来时，游戏变得更加复杂。
The presence of a more knowledgeable play partner can change the way they play,
一个更有见识的游戏伙伴可能改变他们的游戏方式，
and when parents provide guidance, what psychologists call scaffolding,
当父母提供指导，也就是心理学家所说的“脚手架”时，
kids can actually learn more than they would have alone.
孩子们实际学到的东西比他们单独玩得到的要多。
There's evidence that verbal play can improve a child's language skills and their metalinguistic awareness,
有证据表明，语言游戏可以提高孩子的语言能力和他们的元语言意识，
which is their understanding of the rules of language.
后者是他们对语言规则的理解。
And even in adults, the use of puns and other kinds of word play helps enhance learning and memory,
即使到了成年时期，双关语和其他语言游戏也能帮助加强学习和记忆，
like when you're trying to learn a new language.
比如你想学一门新语言的时候可以这么做。
While they might make you groan,
尽管它们可能会让你叹气，
it's actually very possible that dad jokes play a role in helping kids develop their sense of humor and their language skills.
但事实上，老爸笑话很有可能在帮助孩子发展其幽默感和语言能力方面起作用。
So cut the dads and all the other terrible punners in your life a little bit of slack!
所以，慢点儿删除生活中的老爸笑话和其他所有糟糕的双关语吧！
They're doing important work…and it's not their fault that you don't find that joke
它们的作用很重要，你找不到
about two guys walking into a bar and the third one ducking all that funny anymore.
两个人走进一家酒吧，第三个钻入其中（是鸭子）这个笑话的笑点不是它们的错。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢您收看本期的心理科学秀！
If you want to learn more about the science of humor,
如果你想了解更多幽默的科学，
you might want to check out our episode on what is it exactly that makes something funny.
可能会想看看“到底是什么让你觉得有趣”的那期节目。
