Video: Dad Jokes - 210 Todd (UTR Premiere)

Following a raucously packed video release show at Whammy on Friday night, Dad Jokes are ready to unveil their new animation-heavy baby to the online world. The video sees the fun inducing two-piece collaborating with Ottawa-based animator/former trolley pushing record holder Todd Faux. Check out the chuckle-coaxing clip and read our interview with the duo below...

UTR: So, give us your best current bad gag then?

Matt: Ian has this thing where you ask him a question and only answers with “what” so you keep repeating yourself. If he had his own way these questions would be answered with “what”.

Ian: I only do it to Matt though, and I do it for statements as well as questions. My other favourite gag is whenever I see someone wearing camo, I whisper to Matt something along the lines of “Oh my god, how is that guy walking with no legs” and it will take him a moment to realize and then he gets pretty mad. It’s hilarious.

What’s the new video called and what was the idea behind it?

Matt: It’s called ‘210 Todd’. It’s the tale of our friend Todd in Ottawa and he used to have the record for pushing the most trolleys (210) when he worked at Walmart and he became a bit of a teenage hero amongst friends! Todd himself is an animator and we gave him a small amount of shitty green screen footage and he managed to whip up this masterpiece.

Friday night was supposed to be your last show. I heard the tides have turned, to the relief of city dwelling music enthusiasts. What bought on this excellent revelation?

Ian: It was all a scam to get people to come to the show. Just kidding, I was supposed to move away but now I’m not.

Friday had a pretty stylistically diverse line up within the context of guitar music. Was this purposeful or was it more of a ‘let’s book our mates’ sweet bands’?

Ian: It was a little of both. We love all those bands and all the dudes in the bands. Especially with the case of both The Conjurors and Bloodbags, they’ve had members away so neither band has played in a while. Plus it’s really cool when bands with different audiences come together for a show because you get a chance to play for new people which is always fun.

The first track on the recently released Markdown split EP is titled ‘A. H. D. J.’ I’m guessing from the lyrics, and their quoting of your 2015 tour ‘Love Yr Bros’ that the acronym stands for All Hail Dad Jokes. It must be pretty cool to have a musical tribute to your band right?

Matt: Seriously, Markdown are one of the best bands around and it is mind blowing that they have a song about us. We wrote one for them but it’s nowhere near as good as 'A. H. D. J' so we might just have to write a new one for them!

Ian: Yeah, we did a show for Zac Arnold a while ago where he wanted us to write songs for each other. I personally really like the song we wrote for them, Matt just doesn’t like it coz he has to sing it. I do agree with him though that their song is better.

Give us the lowdown on your rad-as place of practice Tiger Spit Garage. Is it meant to be a play on bougie downtown restaurant/bar Tyler Street Garage? Or am I looking way too far into things?

Matt: This is the best place on earth, it’s a total dream having practice at TSG. If I’m honest, I’m not 100% sure why it’s called Tiger Spit, rumour has it when they moved in there was a massive tiger statue in the garage?

Ian: Yeah it’s pretty much our cavern club or CBGB’s. In 20 years people will be coming from all over the world to take photos outside of it and there will be petitions against knocking it down.

What’s next on the cards for Dad Jokes?

Matt: We have finished out first album called Watch Out For The Bullies and that drops in March and we will be having release shows in Wellington and Auckland then we will be touring it around the place.

Ian: I’ve got a solo project going where I’m writing a Rock Opera about memes. It’ll be debuting at the Civic Theatre in 2021 and it is tentatively called “Thanks for the meme-ories”.