No worries! I always thought of a “joke” as something that was intended to make me laugh. When I first saw this, I laughed as I didn’t expect a reference to her old show. So I personally consider it reasonable to call it a joke. Either way, this all has made me want to go back and watch an episode or two of Married with children. Cheers!

The joke was you all along

I watched this Futurama episode back when it aired and was disappointed to see this reference make it to the screen. It wasn't clever and they spent too much time on it. The term "cringe" has managed both to come into and go out of vogue in the intervening years.