So there must be millions upon millions of in-jokes out there, only known to a select few. (I myself probably contribute towards around 1000 of these!) I find this in itself fascinating as it goes a long way to showing how subjective something like humour is, and yet there exist other breeds of humour which transcend contextual boundaries to be enjoyed by millions. Some things we find funny transcend even language and cultural boundaries.
Actually, a few things have crossed the boundary from being in-jokes to being well-known and appreciated by the wider public, things that in my opinion have made the world a sillier and altogether slightly better place...
Lolcats
Of all the image macros which usually originate somewhere like the Something Awful forums or YTMND, and are more often than not perpetuated ad nauseam on 4chan, lolcats are the most famous in the public domain (although not necessarily the funniest). Basically follow the pattern of about 0.01% of in-jokes on internet forums in that they are created by geeks with not much else to do with their time before being picked up by the masses for some kind of cutesy appeal. Still the humour in adding captions to the natural funny nature of cats' expressions has apparently been know since Victorian times, even though it didn't really become more mainstream until the popularisation of "I can has cheezburger?". The best formula for a lolcat is evidently improper use of the English language, a cat with a daft face or in a stupid position, and often a reference to popular culture.
The Wilhelm Scream
Which is a sound effect used in a lot of movies or cartoons when a character falls a great distance or in other similar scenarios. For a long time it held in-joke status among film sound deigners when one of their number took a tape labelled "man being eaten by alligator" from the little-known film Distant Drums, and started to incorporate the effect into the movies he was mixing, including notable George Lucas films such as Star Wars. As it has now been incorporated by geeky film crews into over 100 movies, awareness of the soundbite has increased, and it is now something that true film buffs keep an ear out for at in every new movie.
Where the Hell is Matt?
Three of my favourite videos on the world wide web have been contributed by former software developer Matt Harding who, bored of programming games where the object was to destroy the world, decided to travel around it to appreciate its beauty instead. Apparently, he was known among his peers for a silly dance he would perform at office parties. This led to him being prompted to perform this dance at the various locations he would visit while being filmed on video by one of his travelling buddies. The first video was a surprise internet hit, and led to a sponsorship agreement with gum company Stride for a second trip with an even more impressive backdrop. With so many responses asking him to go to various countries so they could join in, they decided to film a third video in which anybody would be able to join in dancing with Matt if they wanted to.
The results are amazing. The joy on people's faces at doing something completely silly is evident for all to see. I defy you not to smile :-D
As an outsider, trying to interact in a conversation where my closest friends and I are just casually talking as a group must be a pretty unfathomable thing to do. If you know me and have noticed this, I am sorry.
I would say my closest friends basically fall into three groups: one consisting of friends from university; one of friends from high school; and one comprising a couple of long-term friends from first school. I do realise that for anybody outside any of these groups, once we've started chatted, the forum is pretty impenetrable to virtually all other people, that includes people trying to interact across these groups, although I have been working on making the latter two groups interact more!
Part of the reason for this impenetrability is the custom slang we use. However, The biggest reason is the choice of conversation topic. Apart from standard small-talk and a small amount of sensible discussion his usually includes, but is not limited to:
Shared experiences - the foundation upon which friendships are made in my opinion. For example, memories of specific lessons at school.
Proposed ideas for future shared experiences - which often comically involve high degrees of implausibility.
Shared musical or sporting interests - which are often very technical and/or almanac-like in their nature.
Things we all find funny. For example, comedy shows on TV, YouTube Poop, internet memes.
Gossip or recollections about mutual friends and acquaintances, commonly involving over-exaggerated or completely fabricated extensions of their characters
Ridiculous long standing in-jokes based on all or none of the above...
(I know there exist only 2 or 3 people in the universe who could possibly find point 7. funny but hopefully I will have succeeded in making those people spit out their tea...)
The point is, the closest friends we have will be the people we meet and become friends with first of all because they share similar interests or experiences to ourselves. These people will then become the people with whom you will go on to experience life. Upon intricate memories of these experiences, long-standing cryptic jokes will be made, and these complex jokes in turn reward long-term friendship (just as running gags reward long-term viewers of a sitcom.)
Sometimes a group of 2 or more people will already be friends by the time you find out that you have a lot in common and start to become friends with them.
In this instance you have the option of either letting them carry on with the old in-jokes and inevitably end up forming new in-jokes with them as a way of cementing your blossoming friendship, or politely asking the origin of the old in-jokes and cement friendships that way.
Often, the latter process can be a frustrating affair and rely on one of those "you had to be there" moments we all find awkward. However, sometimes the process can be rewarding, and the act of retelling the story which led to the recurring gag can be rewarding in itself.
But then again, sometimes, especially in my circles of friends, the jokes are just too stupid...
