Meta-jokes are jokes that refer to themselves as jokes, make jokes about jokes, or use tried-and-true joke openings. They can be self-referential, anti-humor, or make fun of a particular form of joke. They are often sarcastic and comment on how tired certain jokes are getting. Meta-jokes fall into multiple categories and are part of the larger category of metahumor.
Meta-joke is a term used to describe different types of jokes. These jokes refer to themselves as jokes, make jokes about jokes, or use certain tried-and-true joke openings. The latter form could be described in several ways. For example, “a guy walks into a bar” is a template, which is then used to create a variety of humorous or perhaps not-so-funny jokes.
The first type of meta-joke, a self-referential joke, will refer to sometime in the story or telling the fact that it is a joke. For example:
Bus, bus.
Who is there?
Lettuce.
Lettuce, who?
Lettuce tells more bad jokes.
As you can see from the above, part of the joke is the fact that the joker knows this is the form of knocking.
The second type of meta-joke can refer to anti-humor or meta-humor, humor about humor. Anti-humor is especially common in stand-up routines in which a comedian jokes about how badly her jokes are received. Some comedians use a sort of solid line about how the audience is receiving their jokes, generally spoken in a different tone of voice than is used for the actual “telling” of jokes or stories. For example, a joke might be followed up with “I’m definitely boring you,” addressed to an audience member, or a request for the audience to ask the paramedics to “resuscitate” the comedian’s last joke or metaphorical “die”.
Bob or Bobcat Goldthwait used a running joke in his standup routine, which was both role model and anti-humor. He would say, “My wife is so fat,” prompting audiences to respond by asking how fat she was. To this she would reply in an angry tone: “She’s just fat, okay, I can’t make jokes about everything!”
The meta-joke template makes fun of a particular form of joke. A famous model involves three people, usually of different religions, nationalities or political backgrounds. A joke that begins: “a rabbi, a priest and an imam enter a bar,” is a meta-joke model of two kinds, evoking the bar joke, and the three boys are joking. But this guy makes fun of the model, instead of resorting to it. It could be something as simple as “A rabbi, a priest and an imam walk into a bar and have a drink” or “A rabbi, a priest and an imam walk into a bar and the fun begins”.
A model meta-joke should be told sarcastically, making fun of a specific genre of joke. When used correctly they can be fun. Templates include jokes about blondes, how many things it takes to screw in a light bulb, and a variety of others. They are often comments about how “tired” some of the jokes in the same setting are getting.
Most meta-joke styles fall into more than one category, because most refer to themselves and are anti-humorous in some sense. The funny part about them is that they aren’t meant to be funny. The whole category of being funny about being funny is called metahumor, into which metajoke fits nicely.
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