To find out more about the r/TheRealJoke subreddit and the community behind it, Bored Panda reached out to its creator and moderator RichterRicochet. He explained that the community was formed because of a recurring meme in the r/jokes subreddit “wherein, if someone made a joke in the comments section of a joke that was posted (and the comment's joke was better), then someone would reply with 'The Real Joke is in/is always in the comments.'"

“This gag persisted for quite some time,” so redditor RichterRicochet took it upon himself to open the r/TheRealJoke subreddit as “something of a highlight reel for these comments.”

It turns out, the community is extremely active. “With over 240k subscribers, the subreddit exploded over the course of the last year,” said RichterRicochet and added: “while there is an upside in that there's a greater influx of content, the downside is the lacking moderation.”

There are only two active moderators making sure the subreddit goes according to the rules. “Needless to say, there's a lot of dirt to sift through to get to the gems of the community.”

When asked what the title “The Real Joke” refers to, RichterRicochet simply said that the real joke is always found in the comments and that sums up the essence of the subreddit.

A fan favorite of RichterRicochet is one in their top (of all time) section titled "Oof." Another good one according to him is from this past week, called "Bro, really tho..." “It plays on the stereotypes of people from Alabama having bad hygiene/being coupled with family.”

In the end, Richter Ricochet concluded that “Something to bear in mind is that since the subreddit started, it's essentially become something of an anarchy nightmare.” Thus, he invites anyone who “feels that they can bring order to this mess we call home.”