standing joke

Idioms  

1. Something that is always funny even though it is often repeated. For example, Mary's “Dennis who?” when her husband is mentioned is a standing joke around here. This idiom employs standing in the sense of “established” or “regular,” a usage dating from the mid-1500s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

standing joke

A standing joke between us is Gail saying, “And there’s another problem.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2025

"There's a bit of standing joke in the village about it," he said.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2021

But we have, at least, moved from “infrastructure week” as a standing joke into a months-long effort that will test whether our government is still capable of doing big things.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 31, 2021

Our standing joke is that media criticism is like asbestos abatement: it’s dangerous, tends to get all over you and should be left to the experts.

From Fox News ● Jan. 13, 2020

My grandfather and I had a standing joke.

From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath