History Main / CreatorInJoke

* Almost every Capcom franchise has included a character named Joe. From the more well-known ViewtifulJoe and the ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' series' Sniper Joe, there's been one in StreetFighter, PhoenixWright, BionicCommando and LostPlanet.

* Almost every Capcom franchise has included a character named Joe. From the more well-known ViewtifulJoe and the ''Game/MegaMan'' series' Sniper Joe, there's been one in StreetFighter, PhoenixWright, BionicCommando and LostPlanet.

* Everything John Landis has ever directed, be it a film, a music video, or a TV commercial, has included the line "See You Next Wednesday."

* ''{{Angel}}'': The "Astronauts versus Cavemen" debate in the fifth season episode "A Hole In The World" is funny enough as it is, but it was based on a real argument JossWhedon started in the writers room that got way out of hand. He just wrote it on the chalkboard and came in later to find that the argument had effectively killed any work getting done.

* The film ''[[{{ptitledixtv2ac}} 2010]]'' features a cover of ''Time'' magazine with the American president and Soviet premier. The former is [[ArthurCClarke Arthur C. Clarke]], and the latter is StanleyKubrick.

* "Jalapena" as an exclamation in Disney's ''{{Gargoyles}}''. KeithDavid had known someone who used it that way, and improvised during a recording session. [[ThrowItIn It stuck.]]

* ElonJohn was fond of his [[TheEighties 1980's]] CampGay pseudonym, "Lord Choc Ice", and it appears in many manifestations. An instrumental B side was called "Lord Choc Ice Goes Mental", he credits his co-writing credit for the {{Cher}} co-written ''Leather Jackets'' song "Don't Trust That Woman" to "Cher/Lady Choc Ice" (he was upset that Cher wanted first billing, and tried to upstage her for revenge), he credits "Lady Choc Ice" as an "inspiration" in ''Leather Jackets'' 's liner notes, and "Lord Choc Ice" is billed as "director" on the closing clapperboard in his "I'm Still Standing" video. He was known to substitute "foreign guy" in the line "Susie went and left me for some foreign guy" in "Crocodile Rock" with "...Choc Ice guy" in his 1982 concerts.

* ElonJohn was fond of his [[TheEighties 1980's]] CampGay pseudonym, "Lord Choc Ice", and it appears in many manifestations. An instrumental B side was called "Lord Choc Ice Goes Mental", he credits his co-writing credit for the {{Cher}}-co-written ''Leather Jackets'' song "Don't Trust That Woman" to "Cher/Lady Choc Ice" (he was upset that Cher wanted first billing, and tried to upstage her for revenge), he credits "Lady Choc Ice" as an "inspiration" in ''Leather Jackets'' 's liner notes, and "Lord Choc Ice" is billed as "director" on the closing clapperboard in his "I'm Still Standing" video. He was known to substitute "foreign guy" in the line "Susie went and left me for some foreign guy" in "Crocodile Rock" with "...Choc Ice guy" in his 1982 concerts.

* The band Jimmy Eat World was named after an in-joke from their childhood: "The band's name came from a crayon drawing made after an incident between Linton's younger brothers, Jim and Ed, who fought frequently. Jim usually won, but Ed got his revenge by drawing a picture of Jim shoving the Earth into his mouth; the picture bore the caption "Jimmy eat world".

An in-joke is something which is only funny to those people who have a certain piece of knowledge or information. From a sociological point of view, in-jokes are used by groups to identify those who are Not-Us -- anyone who not a member of the group is not likely to get the joke. In-jokes are a stock source of humor in niche comics or shows; like jokes about computer programming that can only be understood by technicians, jokes about a film that only make sense if you listened to the director's commentary, jokes about a country's political system or culture that only citizens of that place could ever laugh at.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* Everything JohnLandis has ever directed, be it a film, a music video, or a TV commercial, has included the line "See You Next Wednesday."
* GeorgeLucas has somehow managed to work "{{THX 1138}}" (if only the numbers or letters) into everything he's ever done.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* When authors TimPowers and JamesBlaylock were in college together, they invented a fake poet named "William Ashbless" to satirize the quality of their college's literary magazine. He ended up appearing as a character in both of their novels, entirely independently.

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]

[[AC:{{Music}}]]
* The band JimmyEatWorld was named after an in-joke from their childhood: "The band's name came from a crayon drawing made after an incident between Linton's younger brothers, Jim and Ed, who fought frequently. Jim usually won, but Ed got his revenge by drawing a picture of Jim shoving the Earth into his mouth; the picture bore the caption "Jimmy eat world".

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]

* Some of the {{Halo}} games, especially the first one, contained a ton of ShoutOut references to {{Bungie}}'s older title {{Marathon}} which effortlessly go unnoticed by those who had never played their older games.

[[AC:{{Web Comics}}]]
* From "ItsWalky", Walky's catchphrase "Wiigii" was inspired by a typo of the author's when he was trying to type "Woo hoo" and his right hand was off to the left.

[[AC:{{Web Original}}]]

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]

* Apparently, a lot of the gibberish Stitch says in ''LiloAndStitch'' is things like this, only garbled. One phrase is the name of an animator's wife, the other one is a restaurant near the studio.

* Captain Robert T. April in the ''StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Counter-Clock Incident". In the original proposal for ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' that Roddenberry submitted to MGM in 1964, the ''Enterprise'' was to be commanded by Robert ''M.'' April.

* Everything John Landis has ever directed, be it a film, a music video, or a TV commercial, has included the line "See You Next Wednesday."
* GeorgeLucas has somehow managed to work "THX 1138" into everything he's ever done.
* Sam Raimi puts the same car - a 1973 Olds Delta Royale, referred to as "the classic" - in almost all of his films.
* In "SuperTroopers", the name of one of the Local Cops is Rando, which was something the writers called people they didn't know "randoms" during college. Not a huge injoke (as calling people randoms has been around for the last 10 years or so), but one nonetheless.

* From "{{Lost}}", the song "You All Everybody" and its only known lyrics ("you all everybody, acting like these stupid people wearing expensive clothes") came from an inside joke among the writers. One of them had seen someone use the phrase on a talk show many years earlier.

* In {{Doom}}, the cheat code '''iddqd''' was named after a fraternity one of the developers formed in college.

* "TheVentureBrothers": Dean calls Orpheus's pendant a "Dracula trophy". The phrase was originally something overheard during childhood by one of the show's creators, and it stuck.
* "Jalapena" as an exclamation in Disney's {{Gargoyles}}. Keith David had known someone who used it that way, and improvised during a recording session. It stuck.

* {{Futurama}} prefers Al Gore as a constant source of humor for several reasons. Back when the show was new, people thought he was humorless, not knowing that his daughter writes for the show, and she had to get it from somewhere.
** A subtle one from {{Futurama}}- Leela is upset and tears one half of a Kleenex to wipe her tears away. On the DVD commentary, they said that everyone assumed it was a joke because of her one eye, but the writers were referencing that they (the writers) would all use one half of the Kleenex to save money.

* The film ''[[ptitledixtv2ac 2010]]'' features a cover of ''Time'' magazine with the American president and Soviet premier. The former is [[ArthurCClarke Arthur C. Clarke]], and the latter is StanleyKubrick.

* In the original proposal for ''StarTrektheOriginalSeries'' that Roddenberry submitted to MGM in 1964, the ''Enterprise'' was to be commanded by Robert ''M.'' April. The name also turned up in two episodes of ''HaveGunWillTravel'' that Roddenberry wrote in TheFifties.

* Captain Robert T. April in the ''StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Counter-Clock Incident". In the original proposal for ''StarTrektheOriginalSeries'' that Roddenberry submitted to MGM in 1964, the ''Enterprise'' was to be commanded by Robert ''M.'' April.

** A subtle one from {{Futurama}}- Leela is upset and tears one half of a kleenex to wipe her tears away. On the DVD commentary, they said that everyone assumed it was a joke because of her one eye, but the writers were referencing that they (the writers) would all use one half of the kleenex to save money.

Some creators cannot resist putting references or jokes that only they understand into their works. Usually, these are based on events and people from their childhoods, their families, and their working environments. Sometimes these {{InJoke}}s are explained later (usually on a DVD commentary, or in an interview), but sometimes they are ''never'' explained, leading to a lot of [[EpilepticTrees fan speculation]] regarding their meaning.

* "TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob": The word "chippy", which gets used a "lot", comes from some weird foreign porn Tim and Eric once saw.

* Almost every Capcom franchise has included a character named Joe. From the more well-known ViewtifulJoe and the MegaMan series' Sniper Joe, there's been one in StreetFighter, PhoenixWright, BionicCommando and LostPlanet.

* {{Nickelback}} was named after what one of the guys from the band said when he worked at Star Bucks: "Here's your [[CanadaEh nickel]] back."

**"Geronimo Jackson" is a band that is mentioned several times throughout the series. Showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse swear the band was a legitimate one from the 70s that no one remembers, but the pair are known for making outrageous claims and jokes. However, they are unusually adament that Geronimo Jackson was a real band. Several independent "investigations" (searches of music databases, copyright libraries, etc) have turned up no evidence Geronimo Jackson ever existed.