Overview

As the school year has commenced, so has a new segment on multimedia’s OHS weekly bulletin. Three seniors turned the simple concept of dad jokes into a competitive “try not to laugh” challenge with the loser’s face getting doused with an abundance of whipped cream. The show adds a fun, new element to the bulletin and students look forward to seeing it each week. 

Background

The show is founded and run predominantly by three senior friends: Anthony “AJ” Rodriguez, Nicholas Petersen, and Kevin Lencioni. The idea for their segment came about at the beginning of the year when the three of them started telling dad jokes during their first period, AP Literature with Michaela Morrison, and thought it could be a good idea for the school bulletin. The initial concept for the show included Petersen and Rodriguez simply telling jokes back and forth.

Yet, the current concept came about when “Kevin came forth and suggested the pies,” said Rodriguez. Since then, the show has been a hit. 

Lencioni claims the purpose of creating the show was for “fame and glory” while Rodriguez simply states that he was “bored in Advanced Media and needed something to do.” 

On the other hand, Petersen says that the show came about due to their shared love for dad jokes and filming, so when the opportunity arose to combine both, they created “The Dad Joke Show.”

Team Member Roles

Rodriguez and Petersen are usually the ones telling the jokes and doing their best to not laugh, unless they have a guest featured on the show, in which case one of them will face their guest in the competition instead. However, Lencioni gets the unique privilege of hitting the losing competitor in the face with whipped cream every time they film an episode. 

They report that planning is a fairly painless process: they decide who will be on the show that week, then Rodriguez and Petersen have the task of preparing jokes to tell in their video. 

For the past six episodes, Lencioni has had the responsibility of buying the whipped cream that he smashes in the losers’ faces. However, their newer episodes are being sponsored by the local bakery, A Slice of Goodness, who provide them with a real pie for their segment. 

What goes into making an episode? 

Each of the members have a different favorite part, Petersen loves the filming process and getting to hear the funny jokes. 

On the other hand, Lencioni has a blast pieing the losing competitors, mostly Rodriguez. 

“It is so satisfying to cover AJ with pie,” Lencioni said. 

Nevertheless, Rodriguez’s favorite part of the show has been seeing a “revival” of sorts across campus where students are now indulging in corny humor.

A difficulty the team members face is finding the time to film with their schedule conflicts, and working around the schedules of their featured guests. Although it gets hard sometimes, they still really enjoy taking on guests because it makes the segment much more interesting. 

They have made it abundantly clear that their dream feature is Ryan Reynolds, whom they are all big fans of. Yet, previous guest stars include science teacher Chad Gillis, activities coordinator Eric Adams, and PE teacher Hillary Smith. The team is also very hopeful about getting Dr. Isabel Govea and Sondra Myles to be on the show. 

Furthermore, the filming process is quite elaborate.

“We have three cameras setup, one pointing at AJ, one pointing at… Nick, and one recording both… as well as Kevin in a wide shot,” Petersen said. 

Rodriguez and Petersen also have a little mic attached to their shirts for better quality audio. Active film time is about 5 minutes, but the setup takes around 4o minutes due to Petersen’s perfectionism, which the team members call being “nit-picky.” However, they all admit the video always has better quality because of it.           

The main members of “The Dad Joke Show” do not work alone. Mathew Woodrum helps with the sound, while Alexander Konkoff helps with planning and behind-the-scenes production. Each week a few extra people help them with filming and monitoring the audio.

“Without them, filming the show would be much more difficult,” Petersen said. 

Outcomes

So far, there have been six installments of “The Dad Joke Show.” The team members like to joke with Rodriguez that he is constantly losing since he has only won once so far.* 

“I am working overtime trying to not laugh and coming up with newer and better jokes,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez sometimes feels like he is limited by what jokes he can say on a school affiliated media source. Yet, in general, he feels confident that he will win the competition someday soon. 

As for what resulted because of the show: it gives these seniors a creative outlet that allows them to make people on campus laugh. 

“It’s always so much fun for me to see people at school who tell me that they’re enjoying the show… it makes the school day just that much better,” Petersen said. 

Rodriguez has noticed a similar thing: ever since the show began people would come up to him asking if he wanted to hear a dad joke. Getting to see people being brought together because of the show is incredibly exciting.

Lencioni is especially grateful for the show. “I have gotten several scholarship offers as a result of my fantastic pieing technique,” he said. 

To see episodes of “The Dad Joke Show” check out @ohs.thedadjokeshow on Instagram or the OHSMedia307 channel on Youtube.

*Edited on November 30, 2023.