In-joke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An in-joke or inside joke is a joke whose humor is clear only to those people who are "inside" a group that would allow them to have some prior knowledge (not known by the whole population) that makes the joke humorous.

A typical group that may be able to understand a specially-constructed in joke could be:

a nuclear family or an extended family
a group of friends
people of the same vocation or profession
residents of a particular town or region
students and/or alumni of a particular school, 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
members of an Internet forum or virtual community
a group of friends or work colleagues
practitioners of a particular craft, art, or science
those who are familiar with a certain language

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.

Some professional jokes describe those associated with a hobby, job, or demography. They are not obscure enough to be consider in-jokes, as outsiders can understand them if they do enough research.

[edit] Examples

Scientist jokes
Leeroy Jenkins for players of World of Warcraft, or even video gamers in general.
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 (this in-joke was started by Harlan Ellison^{[citation needed]})
The Wilhelm scream: Movie sound technicians
Letting out the magic smoke: Electrical engineers
The Invisible Pink Unicorn: To many atheists, it symbolizes what is seen as the absurdity of believing in a higher being.
Clarus the Dogcow - Macintosh developers
Every online community seems to accumulate its own in-jokes. On Slashdot these include hot grits down the pants, Natalie Portman, and "first post!" On MetaFilter they include pancakes, "we have cameras," and "this X, it vibrates?" (started by this thread)
The term "Guru Meditation" for users of the Amiga computer system. (A reference to an unusual message when the system crashed).
The interconnected films and characters of Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse.
Many in-jokes in dialogue by fictional television characters refer to the real lives of the actors in the program. For example, in Happy Days (season 8, episode 172), the character of Marion says she loves the movie The Music Man because one of the juvenile actors resembles her son as a child^[1]; the joke depends on viewers being aware that both were played by actor Ron Howard. (See also: breaking the fourth wall.)
Much of the humor in the U.S. television show Seinfeld is considered New York City-centric.^{[citation needed]}
Inside baseball
The game Mornington Crescent