EPIC Insurance carries on the tradition of puns along Sagamore Parkway
January 8, 2025
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LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The stretch of Sagamore Parkway connecting Lafayette to West Lafayette can become monotonous for daily commuters, with little to see besides the quick view of the Wabash River.
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Among the various businesses sprinkled about the local highway stands EPIC Insurance, which aims to bring a laugh, or an eye roll, to drivers as they pass by at 2663 Duncan Road.
On a lit-up sign just on the edge of Sagamore Parkway, EPIC Insurance, formerly MBAH Insurance, two jokes read at any given time on opposite sides. Entering the new year, one side of the sign reads, “Winter showers bring snowplowers,” while the other side says, “Smart insect: spelling bee.”
The bad puns, commonly referred to as “dad jokes,” have become a tradition for the insurance company over the past several decades. But it turns out those jokes are more authentic than many realize: They’re written by four dads.
From a binder, to an Excel spreadsheet, to the notes app on their phones
The puns on the sign began back when the former insurance company, MBAH, moved into the spot along Duncan Road in the late 1970s. Jeff Clute, a commercial risk adviser for EPIC Insurance, said the start of the sign jokes began just before his father came into the company as a part owner in 1980.
“Back then, they use to change it every Saturday,” Clute said. “The whole sales force would come in to work until noon, checking the mail and whatever else, and then they would change out the joke on the sign and take off for lunch. But it doesn’t get done that much anymore.”
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The frequency of the joke changes resulted in a binder being kept for records, said Brent Skelton, partner and commercial producer at EPIC Insurance. Each joke would be written with a date next to it to ensure that in the event a joke was recycled, it wouldn’t have been in recent memory.
As technology evolved, so did their record-keeping abilities. The men behind the jokes on the sign began documenting them in an Excel spreadsheet.
But now, with the responsibility spread across Clute, Skelton, employee benefits adviser Don Carless and commercial manager Vince Larrabee, the four EPIC Insurance employees keep note of their jokes in the notes app on their phones.
Friends and family know the four are always in the market for a fresh joke, resulting in pitches for the next sign rotation or gifts for joke inspiration. While everyone has a good “dad joke” or two they can pull out of their back pocket, Carless said a lot of thought goes into what makes it onto the sign.
And people take notice.
A 6-foot ladder and no fear of bugs
The jokes tradition brings calls each week to the EPIC Insurance office. Although most feedback is positive, Carless said there are always a few critics sprinkled in.
Some of their biggest critics, Skelton said, are English teachers, calling to let them know of improper grammar usage or spelling errors.
“I did have an English teacher who taught my kids call,” Skelton said with a laugh. “She wanted to let me know I’d misplaced an apostrophe in one of the signs a few months back.”
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But the duty of changing out the sign’s joke isn’t as easy as people may think, Carless said. Jokes are allotted about 36 characters per line, with only three lines to spare, requiring the jokes be quick and sweet.
Climbing a 6-foot ladder to reach the letter panels, Carless said it’s not uncommon for a letter to be flip-flopped or for the words to be a little off center. It’s also not uncommon to find the letters that have been up for the last month to be covered in cobwebs and bug guts.
“That thing can get pretty nasty,” Carless said. “In the summer, that light just attracts tons of bugs onto the spider webs that are on there. So you can’t be scared of spiders if you want to be in charge of the sign.”
But the “chore” that is changing the sign is something all of the men agree they’ll never stop doing, knowing the smiles, and cringes, it brings to those who pass by it each day.
“My nephew drives a bus out at Westminster, taking the elderly folks out and about, and he’s told me that they all look forward to when he drives by our sign to see what the joke up there will be,” Carless said. “Knowing that, and hearing from the other folks who call, is good motivation.”
And after several decades, the tradition has done exactly what it sought out to do even then: encourage Greater Lafayette residents to give their business a call.
“It’s an identity you want to keep going,” Carless said. “It’s too ingrained into Lafayette to let it go.”
Think you have a joke that is worthy of the Epic Insurance sign rotation? Carless said the four men always welcome input and inspiration by calling their office at 765-423-5421.
Jillian Ellison is a reporter for the Journal and Courier. She can be reached via email at [email protected].
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