In-joke
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An in-joke or inside joke is a joke whose humour is clear only to those people who are in a group that has some prior knowledge (not known by the whole population) that makes the joke humorous.
This group of people could be, for example:
- a nuclear family or (parts of) an extended family
- people of the same vocation or profession
- residents of a particular town or region
- students and/or alumni of a particular college or university
- viewers of a particular television series or cult movie
- readers of a particular book or series of books
- users of the same computer or computer software
- a group of friends or work colleagues
- practitioners of a particular craft, art, or science
- people who read the same encyclopedia
In-jokes sometimes appear in film and television. Such jokes may be visual (for example, a movie theatre marquee shown in the background of a scene might display the title of one of the film director's other works), or delivered in dialogue. In-jokes can also take the form of homages to other films or television series.
It is often considered impolite or otherwise meaningless to share in-jokes among those who are not "in" on the joke, since any hope of a laughing response will depend on a careful explanation of the joke's circumstances, thereby diluting the joke's effect.
Examples
- Typos introduced by the typo fairy: Professional editors and writers
- Story ideas coming from a mail-order business in Schenectady, New York: Science fiction authors
- The Wilhelm scream, an in-joke among movie sound technicians
- Letting out the magic smoke: among electrical engineers
- Drake's Plate of Brass is an example of an in-joke that got misinterpreted and went terribly awry
- The Invisible Pink Unicorn, more or less the mascot of many atheists, which symbolises the (in their eyes) absurdity of believing in a higher being