# Inside joke



## calembourde

Hi,

How would you say an 'inside joke', that is, a joke which only people who have certain background information will notice or understand? As a total guess, something like _blague d'initiés_?

Wow, maybe that's not such a bad guess, I see it has a few Google results, but not many.


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## linguist786

do you mean one of them "you-had-to-be-there" jokes?


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## rsweet

Un clin d'œil ?


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## LV4-26

Quelques résultats
Scores modestes pour
_blague interne_ (mon premier choix) et _blague d'initié(s)_. (en effet).
Score encore plus faible pour _humour de connivence_ (qui n'est pourtant pas mal) et, hélas, très gros score pour "_private joke_" (dans les pages dites francophones, je précise).

Peut-être y a-t-il mieux mais cela ne me vient pas à l'esprit pour le moment.


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## Cath.S.

_« Pourquoi vous rigolez, qu'est-ce qu'il y a de drôle ? _
_--Tu ne peux pas comprendre, c'est une blague entre nous._  »


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## linguist786

egueule said:
			
		

> _« Pourquoi vous rigolez, qu'est-ce qu'il y a de drôle ? _
> _--Tu ne peux pas comprendre, c'est une blague entre nous._  »


oh wow.. this seems to get it across very well


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## calembourde

linguist786 said:
			
		

> do you mean one of them "you-had-to-be-there" jokes?



Not really, but that would be interesting to translate as well. I was thinking more of a sort of hidden joke which you might not even realise is there unless you know some particular (perhaps obscure) information.

For instance, in the TV show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, the first time Superman flies past, members of a crowd say:

It's a bird!
It's a plane!
No, it's just some guy in a pair of tights and a cape.

which might not seem very funny on its own (or to the characters), but people who are familiar with other Superman stories would laugh because it's a reference to the famous line, 'It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's Superman!'

Maybe that's not a very good example because the reference is not particularly obscure, but it's the best thing I could think of at the moment.


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## linguist786

lol - "une blague d'il-fallait-être-là" hmmm.. not quite the same.


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## se16teddy

linguist786 said:
			
		

> do you mean one of them "you-had-to-be-there" jokes?


 
No, the essence of an inside joke is not so much that it is only appreciated by people who share a particular experience.  The essence is that only people who belong to a class or clique appreciate it.  It can be a shibboleth, and it can have quite nasty connotations.  For example, maybe a group of teenagers always laugh at someone who is not in their group: that joke is part of the culture of the clique; and if you are in the clique you have to laugh at the joke (every day) whether you think it is funny or not because if you don't you risk being ostracized. The group understand the joke, but not others, and certainly not the victim.


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## Cath.S.

À la lumière de ce qui vient d'être dit, je peopose _plaisanterie rituelle_.


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## polaire

se16teddy said:
			
		

> No, the essence of an inside joke is not so much that it is only appreciated by people who share a particular experience.  The essence is that only people who belong to a class or clique appreciate it.  It can be a shibboleth, and it can have quite nasty connotations.  For example, maybe a group of teenagers always laugh at someone who is not in their group: that joke is part of the culture of the clique; and if you are in the clique you have to laugh at the joke (every day) whether you think it is funny or not because if you don't you risk being ostracized. The group understand the joke, but not others, and certainly not the victim.


Yes, but it also can be considerably less negative.  I can't think of a good example off the top of my head, but sometimes it's just a trivial association that people have developed in a particular situation that a new person doesn't understand and which by dint of repetition has become humorous to the insiders. Or in a movie when the filmmakers insert some detail of significance that only they will recognize, such as using the director's birthdate for a hotel room number.  That's a kind of inside joke.


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## Joelline

"Blague privée" ou "plaisanterie privée" ne marche pas?


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## se16teddy

egueule said:
			
		

> À la lumière de ce qui vient d'être dit, je peopose _plaisanterie rituelle_.


 
Hmm... Are you sure, perhaps 'plaisanterie rituelle' is more like 'standing joke'? 'You and I, it had to be the standing joke of the year'. Say Hello Wave Goodbye Lyrics - David Gray  You don't have to be in a particular class to enjoy a standing joke - at least, the class is the whole world except for the person who is repeatedly laughed at.



			
				polaire said:
			
		

> Yes, but it also can be considerably less negative. I can't think of a good example off the top of my head, but sometimes it's just a trivial association that people have developed in a particular situation that a new person doesn't understand and which by dint of repetition has become humorous to the insiders. Or in a movie when the filmmakers insert some detail of significance that only they will recognize, such as using the director's birthdate for a hotel room number. That's a kind of inside joke.


 
You are right. An inside joke doesn't have to be a nasty one.  However, I still feel that you tend to call it an 'in-joke' if you're on the inside (pleasant connotations) and an 'inside joke' if you're on the outside (less pleasant connotations).


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## Cath.S.

se16teddy said:
			
		

> Hmm... Are you sure, perhaps 'plaisanterie rituelle' is more like 'standing joke'? 'You and I, it had to be the standing joke of the year'. http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/david+gray/say+hello+wave+goodbye_20037264.html You don't have to be in a particular class to enjoy a standing joke - at least, the class is the whole world except for the person who is repeatedly laughed at.


Je pense que plaisanterie rituelle répond aux critères donnés par toi-même dans ton message n°9.

Je comprends bien ce que _standing joke_ recoupe, mais je ne saurais pas le traduire, du moins pas instantanément.


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## geve

La proposition de LV "Une blague d'initiés" me semble bien répondre aux critères, non ?


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## KaRiNe_Fr

geve said:
			
		

> La proposition de LV "Une blague d'initiés" me semble bien répondre aux critères, non ?


Oui, ou une blague _pour_ initiés... (seulement !)


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## Cath.S.

geve said:
			
		

> La proposition de LV "Une blague d'initiés" me semble bien répondre aux critères, non ?


Je ne sais pas. Cela ne me semble pas correspondre à la définition de se16teddy qu'aucun de ses « collangues » ne semble contester.


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## LV4-26

Comme le montrent les derniers échanges, il est difficile de donner un équivalent tant que l'on n'a pas une définition claire, ratifiée par tous les aborilingues, du terme d'origine. 



			
				geve said:
			
		

> La proposition de LV "Une blague d'initiés" me semble bien répondre aux critères, non ?


Rendons à César. C'était la première traduction proposée par calembourde lui-même.....non ?


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## edwingill

une blague entre nous?


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## calembourde

se16teddy said:
			
		

> You are right. An inside joke doesn't have to be a nasty one.  However, I still feel that you tend to call it an 'in-joke' if you're on the inside (pleasant connotations) and an 'inside joke' if you're on the outside (less pleasant connotations).



Personally I don't see any difference between 'in joke' and 'inside joke', and I never even thought of the negative aspect. I learn just as much about English as I do about French here, thanks everyone!


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## LV4-26

edwingill said:
			
		

> une blague entre nous?


Hm hm....j'ai l'impression d'avoir déjà entendu ça quelque part...
Va voir du côté du post n°5.

Cette traduction, à mon avis, convient parfaitement à la plupart des situations et des contextes. Pour moi, nous sommes en train de pinailler (je n'ai rien là contre) sur les 20% restants.


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## el effe

Pour ma part, je dis toujours "private joke", même dans une conversation en français... et je n'ai jamais rencontré personne qui ne comprenne pas ce que cela veut dire.


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## bouee

moi je dis blague d'insiders, mais je trouve que le "blague d'initiés" ou "blague pour initiés" proposés plus haut vont très bien. 
C'est une blague entre nous va aussi très bien, mais c'est plus familier.


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## LV4-26

bouee said:
			
		

> C'est une blague entre nous va aussi très bien, mais c'est plus familier.


_C'est une blague entre nous_ est parfait. Il faut simplement trouver autre chose pour certains contextes.
Exemple :_ It's an essay about inside jokes.

_Personnellement, je ne dis jamais _private joke_. Mais il est vrai que je suis terriblement snob.


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## xymox

Very interesting!! I've been looking to translate this for the past 25 years, into French and Spanish!!


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## Laurena

se16teddy said:
			
		

> No, the essence of an inside joke is not so much that it is only appreciated by people who share a particular experience.  The essence is that only people who belong to a class or clique appreciate it.  It can be a shibboleth, and it can have quite nasty connotations.  For example, maybe a group of teenagers always laugh at someone who is not in their group: that joke is part of the culture of the clique; and if you are in the clique you have to laugh at the joke (every day) whether you think it is funny or not because if you don't you risk being ostracized. The group understand the joke, but not others, and certainly not the victim.



haha wow not what i would have thought of as the explination for an inside joke. I thinking something a little more light hearted. Like just something that refers to something only certain people understand. but not always something negative or it wouldnt really be all that funny i suppose.


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## polaire

Laurena said:
			
		

> haha wow not what i would have thought of as the explination for an inside joke. *I thinking something a little more light hearted. Like just something that refers to something only certain people understand. but not always something negative or it wouldnt really be all that funny i suppose.*


Well, that's how I've always understood it, too.


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## Kirja

Cath.S. said:


> _« Pourquoi vous rigolez, qu'est-ce qu'il y a de drôle ? _
> _--Tu ne peux pas comprendre, c'est une blague entre nous._  »



Habitant en France pour le moment, je peux dire que ceci me parait le plus naturel. Je crois que je l'ai même entendu.


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## shack-le-thon

3 ou 11 ans plus tard...  For what it's worth, I don't think "in-joke" is a US American expression.  I believe the term "inside joke" to be value neutral in the US.


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