Inside Jokes

In the interest of continuing my mini-series on pet peeves of mine, I'm going to express my utter disgust of inside jokes.

The phrase, 'oh, it's an inside joke'. What do you do when someone says it to you? sort of chuckle a little, say, 'oh, OK' and move away akwardly? or do you ask them to explain, which they then attempt to do, among gales of laughter, which you do not understand?

Whatever your response, an inside joke leaves the non-included person feeling left out and lonely. It is most often unintentional, but it's still mean.Often the reason an inside joke is inside is because it's not really funny when explained, and the teller is just being silly.

I'm guilty of telling inside jokes, but I think we should all try to avoid them.