insiderwitz

Englisch: »in joke«.

An in 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. Also called an inside joke.

This group of people could be, for example:

* a nuclear family or (parts of) an extended family
* just a few people who work together
* people of the same vocation or profession
* residents of a particular town or region
* 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

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.