Dad Jokes, they're the backbone of our society. That might sound extreme, and that's because it is, but everyone loves a good dad joke, except maybe the stars of the upcoming Marvel Studios film Black Widow, who had to endure some comedy from David Harbour.
How does one even define a dad joke? It's generally a short, overly sincere one-liner that involves wordplay or a pun of some kind. For example: "I'm afraid for the calendar. Its days are numbered." How did these kinds of jokes become associated with Dads? Perhaps it's the desire of all parents to embarrass their children, whether it's trying to act "cool" and "hip" or just telling really cringe dad jokes in front of their friends. Either way, we love a good dad joke, and so does Marvel, apparently.
Sunday, June 20th, was Fathers Day, a day celebrating dads around the world, and Marvel Studios decided to get in on the action. The studio put out a short minute and a half promo for their upcoming film Black Widow that features actor Harbour reading off cringy Black Widow-themed dad jokes to his co-stars Florence Pugh and Scarlett Johansson. These jokes include such gems as, "Why did the Black Widow wear a disguise? Because she was a SPY-der!" Oof. Good Stuff.
In the film, Harbour plays Red Guardian, a washed-up super-soldier who is basically Russia's answer to Captain America. He's also the adoptive father of Johansson's character Black Widow/Natasha "Nat" Romanoff. Based on the trailers, it looks like Widow will be reuniting with her entire adoptive family, which includes Pugh's character Yelena Belova and a mother-figure played by Rachel Weisz. How exactly these family dynamics will work remains to be seen, but it will be interesting to see Widow reunite with her original adoptive family, as one could argue that The Avengers fulfilled that role later. The MCU is also chock-full of bad dads, so hopefully, for Nat's sake, Red Guardian sets a better example than someone like Thanos or Ego.
Since Black Widow is also a prequel, set between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, it will be interesting to see what happens to Natasha's adopted family. Why weren't they around during Endgame? Do they know of Nat's sacrifice?
Some have speculated that Pugh's character will actually go on to take up the mantle of Black Widow in future Marvel properties. However, this doesn't bode well for Harbour's Red Guardian, who will be lucky to make it out of this film alive. Hopefully, he gets to crack off some dad jokes though, since fans would all like to see Harbour deliver them in a Russian accent.
Black Widow will be in theatres and available on Disney Plus with premiere access on July 9th, 2021.
Source: Marvel Studios | Twitter