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Professional humor
{{oOriginal research|article|date=September 2007}}{{expert}}
'''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, [[mathematical joke]]s might play up their lack of worldly wisdom  and [[accountancy]] jokes might address "[[creative accounting]]".

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". Another hydrogen atom asks "Are you sure?" -  "Yeah! I'm positive".
</blockquote>

The joke involves the pun with the technical meaning of the word "positive", which refers to the phenomenon that if an atom loses an electron, it turns into an [[ion]] with positive [[electric charge]].

== References ==
{{Unreferenced|article|date=January 2007}}
<references />

[[Category:Professional humor]]