If you frequent the Mission BC & Neighbours Facebook page, you’re probably used to seeing arguments over development, taxes, bylaws, and of course, which Chinese restaurant has the best food.
But everyday since late December, the community’s online scrollers have been offered a brief respite from the squabbles, in the form of a daily dad joke.
Daryl Derksen, the 38-year-old chef cooking up the one-liners, says he’s on a mission to write a joke a day for rest of the year.
“The worse they are, the better they usually are,” said the 38-year-old chef, adding that part of the meta of his jokes is to see how many people get sick of them. “I’ve got people on both sides either encouraging me to keep going to encouraging me to stop.
“It’s a great small town thing I think.”
Derksen said he doesn’t really have a specific reason for injecting a bit of comedy on to the page, only that he has a catalogue of “hundreds, probably thousands in the back of my head somewhere,” and he wants to challenge himself in writing a new one everyday. He hasn’t missed a day yet.
“People know me as, maybe not the funny guy, but you know, ‘You want a joke? Go ask Daryl, he’s got a joke for you.’ Or I’ll turn something into a pun. I’m pretty good with wordplay.”
Working as a chef for 20 years, Derksen said he’s known around the kitchen as the guy with the jokes, but he’s keeping the content clean for the local Facebook page.
“You have to think of your audience,” he said.
Writing the jokes have become a part of his routine, and he looks forward to posting them everyday, Derksen said, adding he’s never thought about going into comedy.
“I’ve been told I shouldn’t give up my day job,” he said. “How long will they put up with me before we see posts about the daily jokes instead pizza, gas, and Chinese food?”