Meaning of running joke | Babel Free

Definitions

An ongoing joke, one that is regularly repeated or continued.

Equivalents

Examples

““I Love⟳ Lisa” opens with one of my favorite underappreciated running jokes from The Simpsons: the passive-aggressive, quietly contentious relationship of radio jocks Bill and Marty, whose mindless happy talk⟳ regularly gives way to charged exchanges that betray the simmering resentment and disappointment perpetually lingering just under the surface of their relationship.”

“These deadpan repeated phrases that cannot quite decide⟳ whether they are part of a running joke or a half-abandoned philosophical dictum produce⟳, as Michael Wood has argued, a comedy of the intellect that becomes a comedy of ignorance: […]”

“Her obvious favoritism has become⟳ a running joke among the staff. A joke that I'm the butt of. She's at least twenty years older than me, not to mention⟳ married.”

CEFR level