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.

---

Example Sentences

That deal brought to the C-suite the acquired company’s top management and its cost-cutting culture; in the Boeing corridors, the standing joke was that “McDonnell Douglas bought Boeing with Boeing’s money.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2025

"It's become a long standing joke with the staff now," he said.

From BBC • Dec. 19, 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