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'''Professional humor''' or '''occupational humor''' is a kind of [[humor]] which pokes fun at the peculiarities of a particular [[profession]].

A speaker at a professional seminar will often break the ice with a bit of professional humor. Occupational jokes tend to exploit popular stereotypes about the profession in question: [[lawyer joke]]s might present them as lacking in ethics, [[scientist joke]]s and [[mathematical joke]]s might play up their lack of worldly wisdom  and [[accountancy]] jokes might address "[[creative accounting]]". For example:

<blockquote>
A computer salesman, a hardware engineer and a software engineer are driving in a car, when the car suffers a flat tire, a blowout. They discuss what to do:
*The salesman recommends getting four new tires.
*The hardware engineer recommends rotating the tires to try to isolate the problem.
*The software engineer recommends they keep driving and see if the problem fixes itself.
</blockquote>

Professional humor is not the same as [[in-joke]]s, which can be appreciated by only a member of a specific profession or community. At the same time, each profession has its in-jokes. An example would be a chemistry joke:

<blockquote>
*One hydrogen atom says "I think I lost an electron". The other hydrogen atoms asks "Are you sure?" -  "Yeah! I'm positive".
</blockquote>

"Too much" jokes humorously describe actions that fans of a particular subject or hobby may do if they become too obsessed with the subject. Usually, these jokes are not considered in-jokes, as they are less obscure and would be understood by more people. Examples include:

*"You might be obsessed with NASCAR if..."
*"You know you play ''[[World of Warcraft]] too much when..."
*The [[Wikipedia]] [[Wikipedia:Are You a Wikipediholic Test|Wikipediholic test]]

These jokes, not necessarily related to professions, may also describe those in certain demographies. Examples include:

*"You might be a [[redneck]] if..."
*"You might be from [[New York]] if..."

== References ==
{{uUnreferenced|article|date=January 2007}}
<references />
==External links==
* [http://www.jokethemonkey.com/ Joke The Monkey] - Tons of profession jokes including engineer, doctor/medical, psychologist/psychiatrist, teachers, lawyers, office, politicians, and more.
* [http://www.workjoke.com/projoke.htm Professional jokes], A large collection of jokes about professions: programmers, mathematicians, philosophers, physicists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, psychiatrists etc.

[[Category:Professional humor]]