Channel lore

A nickname for the audience, a running joke about a broken piece of equipment, an event everyone references and nobody explains. None of it gets planned. It accumulates, and at some point becomes the reason a viewer feels like part of something instead of a passer-by. Handled badly it shuts newcomers out. Channels that manage both let the joke land without demanding you already know it, so a first-timer reads it as a group worth joining.