People Are Sharing Their Local Inside Jokes And These 35 Are Pretty Funny

Inside jokes have a way of bringing people together and they are born out of shared memories or interests that outsiders have a hard time understanding at first.

But they get even better when they’re shared by millions of people.

"Certain cultures, for example the British from the Romantic period onward, take pride in having a special 'sense of humor' which becomes part of the national identity. That is why we have countless discussions of how the British sense of humor differs from, say, the French or Chinese sense of humor," Salvatore Attardo, a linguistics professor at East Texas A&M University, tells Bored Panda.

Sometimes these jokes become global — if you are one of those who Googled their birth dates and “Florida Man,” you know what I’m talking about.

What started in local news, has grown into a well‑known global cultural reference. And people from Florida are far from offended.

So much so, that the residents there have organized games and celebrations around the joke in recent years.

This shows that inside jokes can also become a source of pride or shared identity for the locals.

If you haven’t heard about it, “Florida Man” memes come from local news stories about men from Florida doing something unusual or odd — often criminal activities. These stories can range from alligator encounters to bizarre robberies in this US state, and they're all real-life incidents.

The weirder a story is, the more chances are there of it going viral around the world.

Experts say that shared jokes act sort of like cultural glue.

If you meet a stranger in your own country and don’t know what to talk about, inside jokes are the perfect ice-breakers — they can help you make new friends.

Since some jokes are usually language-specific and linked to clever wordplay or puns, it always helps to approach a local to make sense of them.

And if you are a local, you shouldn’t think that explaining your joke will ruin the punchline — it can spark intercultural learning and help your friend from another country feel more at home.

Attardo, one of the leading scholars in humor research, says: "There aren’t really any forms of humor that are impossible to get outside of a country. At most, some styles are more popular in some countries than others. For example, the British seem to prefer understatements to exaggerations."

Jokes often give us clues about stereotypes and social issues as well.

Professor Attardo says people bond over inside jokes because they enjoy being part of an in-group.

"It is reassuring: if the jokester is not making fun of you or of a group you identify with, then you’re safe and you feel good about it. Of course, there is also humor that does not have a target, and so is essentially not aggressive."

To some extent, what people find funny is like fashion: it changes periodically.

"There was a moment when physical comedy was very popular (think of the early Chaplin), then it was more political stuff (Lenny Bruce), then more surreal (for example, Steven Wright), then it was cringe and now it’s brain rot. However, there are themes that never go out of style (humbling a braggart) or mocking those who are different (sadly, not all humor is nice)," says Attardo.

"So, to a large extent, people find funny whatever other people around them find funny. It’s hard to believe that anyone thought that a mullet was cool, but obviously enough people did in the 1970s for it to become a thing."