lol. 2012. People not understanding connotation and denotation.
Esoteric means that literally, yes. That's what is known as the denotation of the word. An instance of a denotation is saying "the tribes' cultural festivities were esoteric" because it's exclusive to them. An instance of connotation would be "her clothes are sure quaintly odd-fashioned. How esoteric!" Those were examples I thought of offhand.
Learn to English.
As for your "joke", jokes are meant to be funny and true to an extent. It was neither.