in-joke

Notebook with notes featuring inside jokes.

An in-joke (also known as an in joke or inside joke) is a joke whose humor is clear only to those people who are "inside" a social group, occupation or other community of common understanding; an esoteric joke. It is only humorous to those who know the situation behind it. Inside jokes may exist within a small social clique, such as a group of friends, or they may extend to an entire profession (e.g., inside jokes in the film industry). A book was published in 1998 by McFarland & Company cataloguing many of these references in popular media: Film and Television In-Jokes: Nearly 2,000 Intentional References, Parodies, Allusions, Personal Touches, Cameos, Spoofs and Homages.^[1]

An inside joke works to build community, sometimes but not always at the expense of outsiders. Part of the power of an inside joke is that its audience knows that there are those who do not understand the joke.^[2] Inside jokes are cryptic allusions to shared common ground that act as triggers. Only those who have shared the common ground provide an appropriate response.^[3]An inside joke can be a subtext, where someone will suddenly start laughing at something that is unspoken (often later apologizing for doing so, stating that what they were laughing at was an inside joke).^[4]

See also

• Military humor
• Mathematical joke

References

Look up inside joke in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.