You could maybe argue that 'in the loop' implies that someone else in the loop has knowingly informed you of the loop's contents, hence bringing you 'in the loop', whereas you could be aware of the loop's contents without being intentionally informed, such as if a high ranking military official accidentally added you to a group chat you weren't supposed to know about.

Admittedly that's pretty iffy, and maybe there's not really a humorous way to convey that they want to be aware of things without others knowing what they know or being expected to act on said information.