Self-referential humor, also known as self-reflexive humor, self-aware humor, or meta humor, is a type of comedic expression that—either directed toward some other subject, or openly directed toward itself—is self-referential in some way, intentionally alluding to the very person who is expressing the

humor Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

in a comedic fashion, or to some specific aspect of that same comedic expression. Self-referential humor expressed discreetly and surrealistically is a form of bathos. In general, self-referential humor often uses

hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the ...

oxymoron An oxymoron (usual plural oxymorons, more rarely oxymora) is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposing meanings within a word or phrase that creates an ostensible self-contradiction. An oxymoron can be used as a rhetorical devi ...

, or paradox to create a contradictory or otherwise absurd situation that is humorous to the audience.

History

Old Comedy of Classical Athens is held to be the first—in the extant sources—form of self-referential comedy. Aristophanes, whose plays form the only remaining fragments of Old Comedy, used fantastical plots, grotesque and inhuman masks and status reversals of characters to slander prominent politicians and court his audience's approval. Self-referential humor was popularized by

Douglas Hofstadter Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American scholar of cognitive science, physics, and comparative literature whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, an ...

who wrote several books on the subject of self-reference, the term ''

meta Meta (from the Greek μετά, '' meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond") is a prefix meaning "more comprehensive" or "transcending". In modern nomenclature, ''meta''- can also serve as a prefix meaning self-referential, as a field of study or ende ...

'' has come to be used, particularly in art, to refer to something that is self-referential.

Classification

Meta-jokes are a popular form of humor. They contain several somewhat different, but related categories: ''joke templates'', ''self-referential jokes'', and ''jokes about jokes'' (meta-humour).

Joke template

This form of meta-joke is a

sarcastic Sarcasm is the caustic use of words, often in a humorous way, to mock someone or something. Sarcasm may employ ambivalence, although it is not necessarily ironic. Most noticeable in spoken word, sarcasm is mainly distinguished by the inflection ...

jab at the endless refitting of joke forms (often by professional comedians) to different circumstances or characters without a significant innovation in the humor.

Self-referential jokes

Self-referential jokes must refer to themselves rather than to larger classes of previous jokes.

Jokes about jokes ("meta-humor")

''Meta-humour'' is humour about humour. Here ''meta'' is used to describe that the joke explicitly talks about other jokes, a usage similar to the words

metadata Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

(data about data),

metatheatrics A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes c ...

(a play within a play, as in '' Hamlet''), and

metafiction Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...

Other examples

Alternate punchlines

Another kind of meta-humour makes fun of poor jokes by replacing a familiar punchline with a serious or nonsensical alternative. Such jokes expose the fundamental criterion for joke definition, "funniness", via its deletion. Comedians such as George Carlin and Mitch Hedberg used metahumour of this sort extensively in their routines.

Anti-humor

Anti-humor is a type of indirect and

alternative comedy Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe ...

that involves the joke-teller delivering something that is intentionally not funny, or lacking in intrinsic meaning. The humor of such jokes is based on the surprise factor of absence of an expected

joke A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...

or of a punch line in a narration that is set up as a joke.

Warren A. Shibles Warren A. Shibles was an American philosopher, historian and professor. His B.A. is from the University of Connecticut and his M.A. from the University of Colorado. He was head of the department of philosophy of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewa ...

Humor Reference Guide: A Comprehensive Classification and Analysis
(Hardcover) 1998 It depends upon reference to the audience's expectations on what a joke is.

Breaking the fourth wall

Self-referential humor is at times combined with breaking the fourth wall to make explicit reference directly to the audience or to make self-reference to an element of the medium the characters should not be aware of.

Class-referential jokes

This form of meta-joke contains a familiar class of

s as part of the joke.

''Bar'' jokes

Comedian jokes

The process of being a humorist is also the subject of meta-jokes; for example, on an episode of '' QI'', Jimmy Carr made the comment, "When I told them I wanted to be a comedian, they laughed. Well, they're not laughing now!"— a joke previously associated with Bob Monkhouse.

Limericks

A limerick referring to the anti-humor of limericks: W. S. Gilbert wrote one of the definitive "anti-limericks":

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

's anti-limerick from '' Travesties'':

Metaparody

Metaparody is a form of humor or

literary technique A narrative technique (known for literary fictional narratives as a literary technique, literary device, or fictional device) is any of several specific methods the creator of a narrative uses to convey what they want —in other words, a stra ...

consisting "parodying the parody of the original", sometimes to the degree that the viewer is unclear as to which subtext is genuine and which subtext parodic.

RAS Syndrome

RAS syndrome refers to the redundant use of one or more of the words that make up an acronym or initialism with the abbreviation itself, thus in effect repeating one or more words. However, "RAS" stands for Redundant Acronym Syndrome; therefore, the full phrase yields "Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome" and is self-referencing in a comical manner. It also reflects an excessive use of

TLA TLA may refer to: Organisations * Tennessee Library Association, a professional organization for librarians in Tennessee * Texas Library Association, a professional organization for librarians in Texas * Tour de las Américas, a professional gol ...

s (Three Letter Acronyms).

Examples

Hedberg

Stand-up comedian Mitch Hedberg would often follow up a joke with an admission that it was poorly told, or insist to the audience that "that joke was funnier than you acted."

Rehnquist

Marc Galanter in the introduction to his book ''Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture'' cites a meta-joke in a speech of Chief Justice William Rehnquist:

I've often started off with a
lawyer joke Lawyer jokes, which pre-date Shakespeare's era, are commonly told by those outside the profession as an expression of contempt, scorn and derision. They serve as a form of social commentary or satire reflecting the cultural perception of lawyers. ...
, a complete caricature of a lawyer who's been nasty, greedy, and unethical. But I've stopped that practice. I gradually realized that the lawyers in the audience didn't think the jokes were funny and the non-lawyers didn't know they were jokes.

References

{{Reflist Humour Self-reference Jokes