Developing a sense of humor as a parent is practically a survival tactic. How else would we get through those sleepless nights, endless diaper changes, toddler tantrums, and teen attitude years? But some celebrity parents have really nailed the concept of humor as a coping mechanism, and we are totally here for it.
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are famous for trolling each other on social media, but they also know how to make us feel “normal” with their hilariously relatable parenting tales. Other famous parents, like George Clooney, love teaching their kids pranks, which takes “dad jokes” to a whole new level! And stars like Amy Schumer, Tina Fey, and Melissa McCarthy naturally make parenting a funny experience.
These clever parents know how to include their kids in the joke — rather than teasing them — and research shows this is a great parenting tactic! Laughter has been shown to help people connect as well as make kids smarter, healthier, and better able to cope with challenges. Basically, making your kids laugh and turning to humor in otherwise stressful situations is a good thing, so consider this your official excuse to let the jokes fly at home.
If you need tips on finding the humor in parenting or are just looking for some LOL content to brighten your day, then keep reading to discover who are the funniest parents in Hollywood. Let their mom fails, dad jokes, parenting pranks, and funny tales inspire you to take life just a little less seriously. You’re welcome!
Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively
Ryan Reynolds often cracks jokes about life with Blake Lively and their daughters, James, 6, Inez, 5, and Betty, 2. For example, in 2017, the Red Notice star tweeted, “Went to Disneyland because my daughter’s obsessed with Mickey Mouse. She was so excited when I got back home and told her.” The year prior he tweeted, “The mobile above my daughter’s crib is just a whole bunch of NuvaRings. So she remembers how lucky she is.”
However, Lively went on record in 2017 to clear the air about her hubby: “He may as well work for the Enquirer. When he says ‘my daughter,’ he’s never, ever talking about her. Everything is a completely made-up scenario.”
Mindy Kaling
Despite being “not a kid person at all” before she had children, Katherine, 3, and Spencer, 1, Mindy Kaling appreciates the humor in parenting. In 2018, she said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “I was on planes [and] when babies would cry, I would be mad at families. Now I’m like, ‘Let them cry, let them do whatever they want. They can sit on me and poop if they want.’ Now I know more.”
Melissa McCarthy
While Melissa McCarthy is busy making us laugh on the big screen, her daughters, Vivian, 14, and Georgette, 11 (whom McCarthy shares with husband Ben Falcone), are developing their humor streak at home. At The Boss premiere in 2016, McCarthy told People, “We have very funny kids.”
Falcone added, “They get out of being disciplined because they are funny. They’ll do something [to get a laugh] and you’re like ‘Alright, hold on, that’s not the point.’”
McCarthy said, “’Good bit, strong bit. However, you still have to go clean up your room.’ It’s a balancing act. Kids are really smart. They pick up on everything and then you still have to not laugh in front of them as you tell them that something’s not appropriate, or something might be too aggressive. Then, when they leave the room…”
“You laugh really hard,” said Falcone.
“Ben and I try to write it down so we don’t forget, and then laugh a lot without them seeing,” added McCarthy. “It’s a system in a web of lies. That’s what it is.”
Jimmy Fallon
Talk show host Jimmy Fallon has been making us laugh with his parenting tales ever since daughters Winnie, 8, and Frances, 6, were born. Like in 2015, when he told Parents, “They vomit a lot. For a second I thought I needed to rename my first Linda Blair and hire a priest because she was spitting up so much.”
And in 2014, Fallon joked with People, “You’d be surprised how durable babies are. You hold them like they’re Fabergé eggs, and then – wonk! – she hits her head on the table and you think, ‘Oh my gosh, did I give her a dent on her head that’s going to be there forever?’ But babies aren’t that precious. Everyone turns out fine. Just love them and make them laugh. I make my daughter laugh every day.”
Ashton Kutcher & Mila Kunis
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have dubbed themselves the “goofy parents” of Wyatt, 7, and Dimitri, 5. In a March 2020 interview with the Teach Me Something New podcast, Kunis said, “We’re very comfortable with ourselves acting a fool at home, but maybe that comes from the idea of being comfortable in your own body, and in your own skin, and in your mind and not having a fear of making a fool of yourself.”
Kutcher added, “Sometimes try to read our daughter’s books in the characters’ voices, and she’s like, ‘Dad, can you just use your real voice?’ I’ll do Peppa Pig with an English accent. And then [the dad], the whole thing. And she’s like, ‘Dad, just do your regular voice.’”
George Clooney
George Clooney is teaching his twin children Ella and Alexander, 4, how to pull off hilarious pranks. In an October 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight, he said of the pandemic, “You just feel so bad for the world and all of that, you know? But our kids are four and they were two-and-a-half when it started so you know, they weren’t missing out on much out in the world. So, you know, I didn’t have to teach them trigonometry at home.”
His wife Amal Clooney added, “He’s mainly teaching pranks for the time being. But we’ll see if it develops.”
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in 2020, George shared that Amal is also the victim of his humor. “I teach them horrible things…I just want to hear the shriek from my wife, and I know I’ve succeeded,” he explained. “So I taught them to put Nutella in their nappy and then go upstairs and take it off, and then pick it up and eat it.”
And the couple’s kids are naturally developing funny personalities of their own. Recently, George said on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, “Alexander every morning, eight in the morning, bangs on my bedroom door. I go, ‘Who is it?’ And he goes, ‘It is I, Alexander Clooney.’”
“They make me laugh, I laugh every day,” he said. “They really are funny kids.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is father to daughters Tiana, 3, and Jasmine, 6, whom he shares wife Lauren Hashian. He also shares daughter Simone, 20, with his ex-wife Dany Garcia.
And the actor has no shortage of parenting content, which he often posts online, whether it’s a video of Jasmine drawing all over his face with a marker on her birthday or Tiana’s potty crisis which ruined his new white sneakers.
Tina Fey
Ever since SNL alum Tina Fey became a mom to daughters Alice, 16, and Penelope, 10, she’s been making us laugh with her parenting stories. In 2011, Fey told InStyle that her daughters rule their home, saying, “Kids are definitely the boss of you. Anyone who will barge into the room while you are on the commode is the boss of you. And when you explain to them that you’re on the commode and that they should leave but they don’t? That’s a high-level boss.”
In 2011, Fey wrote about work-life balance in an article published by the New Yorker. “‘How do you juggle it all?’ people constantly ask me, with an accusatory look in their eyes,” she wrote. “‘You’re screwing it all up, aren’t you?’ their eyes say. My standard answer is that I have the same struggles as any working parent but with the good fortune to be working at my dream job. Or sometimes I just hand them a juicy red apple I’ve poisoned in my working-mother witch cauldron and fly away.”
Kristen Bell & Dax Shepard
In 2019, Kristen Bell documented her husband Dax Shepard explaining to their daughters Lincoln and Delta, what it means to flip someone off.
“I have been waiting for this conversation since the day I got pregnant,” Bell captioned her Instagram video. “The one where we talk about what fingers mean…when u hold ’em up…”
In the video, one of the girls can be heard saying that her parents “Didn’t tell me ‘f—’ was a bad word when I was little,” to which Shepard replied, “You’re right, we just ignored it. We hoped that you didn’t say it a lot, which seemed to work.”
Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer has always been hilarious, but becoming a mom has brought her relatability to a whole new level. Like in 2021 when she posted a photo of herself trying to sip a cocktail while her son, Gene, 2, slept on her shoulder or when she pushed him in his stroller while wearing mesh underwear five weeks after giving birth.
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