"I love self-referential jokes,” says the meta-joke-explainer. “They’re the funniest of all jokes.”

"What do you mean, ‘self-referential jokes’?"

"It’s a joke that is aware of its own existence and uses that knowledge to make a joke."

"That sounds pretty meta."

"Nah, it’s not meta. It’s just self-referential."

"But isn’t that what meta means?"

"Meta means ‘self-referential’? Huh. I guess I never realized that they were the same thing. Yeah, you’re right. I guess most of these jokes are meta. It just happens that they are also self-referential, which is why I only call them ‘self-referential' and not ‘meta’.”

“But they have the exact same meaning, so what does it matter? Why don’t you just call them ‘meta jokes’?"

“I don’t know. I guess I never thought of that."