"Always knock before opening your fridge"
...There could be a salad dressing"
If that corny joke brought a smile to your face, then it's a mission accomplished for Guelph resident Mark Hallman, who's been dedicating some time everyday since Jan. 1 to put smiles on faces in his neighborhood around Exhibition Park, one dad joke at a time.
“If they're making a few people happy, that’s great and I’m making myself happy in the process,” said Hallman about his Daily Summit Smile initiative outside his Summit Crescent home.
Every night he finds a dad joke online and puts it up on a sandwich board outside his home the next morning to bring some joy to people during the difficult times of the pandemic.
The jokes are ridiculous, silly and funny.
“I put the first part of the joke on the one side and the punchline on the other side so people can look at it,” said Hallman. He later shares it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Hallman said he enjoys seeing the reaction of people walking by — including his two nine-year-old twin son and daughter — as they read one side and hop over to read the other side and have a big belly laugh .
“I’ve been getting a lot of really positive feedback from it. Everyone enjoys it and gets a chuckle and I’ve had several people commenting on how they look forward to seeing the joke, walking by the house or reading the Facebook post about it too. It’s been real fun,” said Hallman.
As the initiative is gaining popularity, people have also begun to take part in the joke sharing process by pitching jokes.
“It’s great! It’s less work for me,” laughed Hallman.
He said a friend of his in London, Ont. began sharing his jokes on a sandwich board in front of her lawn and has been getting much attention from the neighbourhood and from local media.
“The laughs are spreading,” said Hallman.
He said on Tuesday, he shared a joke that read “I want to get one of those dogs that fetches me a bottle of wine. You know, a Bordeaux Collie.”
He said a woman who was walking her dog — which was part border collie — quite liked it.
Hallman said the idea of the Daily Summit Smile came from another Guelph resident last year who would put a daily dad joke of the day on Kathleen Street.
“It became a destination for us every time we went for a walk. We would walk to the joke house and get a laugh and it was always a really cheesy corny dad joke. I always enjoyed it,” said Hallman.
He said once the man stopped putting jokes in the summer, he reached out to him as a courtesy asking him for permission to continue the initiative, which he graciously accepted.
“I’ve never had any negative comments about it. They've always been really supportive and people have been really enjoying it and it seems like they look forward to it each day,” said Hallman.
He said he plans on continuing his jokes daily throughout the pandemic to do his part on making people smile in difficult times.
