Callback (comedy)

Form of joke In comedy, a callback is a joke that refers to one previously told in the set. It is also known as an internal allusion, a literary device that helps give structure to the piece of writing. Callbacks are a subset of inside jokes which refer to something told in the set rather than to anything in general. Television In television, the term callback has come to mean a joke or line that refers to a previous episode (or sometimes, in rare cases, movies). Particularly in earlier sitcoms—though even until the early 1990s—callbacks were rare and often frowned upon by networks, because they threaten to alienate a viewer who is new to the series, or who has missed episodes, particularly if the callback is tied to previous episodes (this is especially a threat to a show's syndication value, as shows in which the episodes are self-contained, and thus can be rerun out of order, can fetch a higher sale price than shows that must be run in sequence). Seinfeld, a show built around stand-up comedy, regularly used callbacks in its scripts; its use of the strategy commonly kept the callbacks confined to events in the same episodes, having the effect of bringing the episode full-circ