Our final tennis “dad joke” to round out the weekend is magnanimously awarding an opponent two serves before they have even hit a first serve. Of all the tennis dad jokes, this is arguably the most benign. It is also the most common and thus overused.
The magnanimous “take two” typically occurs as the point is about to begin but is disrupted by a ball from an adjacent court. After retrieving and clearing the interloper, the receiving team loudly announces that the other team may “take two.” Of course, they are obviously already entitled to that because they have yet to hit a first serve.
One way this joke can be low-key annoying is when it is used in a real competitive situation to give casual observers or roving officials a false impression of sportsmanship. That can fuel self-righteous indignation when the other team doesn’t later reciprocate with a genuinely generous “take two” after disruption between a first and second serve.
Next weekend, the theme for the “Unplugged” weekend posts will revolve around the rules and etiquette surrounding disruptions and delays between serves. In the meantime, the magnanimous “take two” tennis dad joke is best executed only once per match. As it turns out, that is the case for all tennis dad jokes.
If you have a tennis dad joke that you would like to see me cover in the future, just let me know.
