Hans Christian Andersen? Here’s a child-like imagination, vivifying inanimate objects. And, or, here’s the big person enacting goofy things as a way to encourage and embrace a little person. That’s also called scaffolding, an idea that comes from Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s notion of zones of proximal development. All that means that kids learn from bigger kids, or adults, who show them how to do cool things. Wegman is great at this, hinting at how to look at things differently, or simply how to have fun and be funny.
That’s half of what’s going on in this little piece. The other half is more modest affection. These dad-like jokes are, indeed, kind of dumb. But you impatient children should look a little closer, a little more carefully at what they really mean. Lame dads are just trying to say i-love-you without repeating the phrase overly, or crowding the object of devotion.