I.
noun
ADJECTIVE
▪ amusing , funny , good , hilarious
▪
She didn't seem to find my ~s amusing.
▪ old
▪
That's an old joke—I've heard it lots of times.
▪ bad , corny , dumb ( AmE ), lame , silly , stupid , unfunny ( esp. BrE )
▪ cruel , sick
▪ racist , sexist
▪ crude , dirty , off-colour/off-color ( esp. AmE )
▪ inside ( esp. AmE ), private
▪
They kept telling inside ~s about people I didn't know.
▪ running
▪
The show features a running ~ about a nosy dog.
▪ practical
▪
His brothers were always playing practical ~s.
▪ huge
▪
It's all just a huge ~ to you, isn't it?
VERB + JOKE
▪ crack , make , tell
▪
He's excellent at telling ~s.
▪ play
▪
He's always playing ~s on people.
▪ exchange , have ( esp. BrE ), share
▪
She likes to share a ~ with her employees.
▪ hear
▪ appreciate , enjoy , get , laugh at , like , understand
▪
We all fell about laughing, but he didn't get the ~.
▪
She doesn't like ~s about her height.
▪ remember
▪ spoil
▪
He told us the ending, completely spoiling the ~.
▪ miss
▪
Am I missing the ~ here?
▪ take
▪
The trouble is she can't take a ~.
▪ treat sth as
▪
He treated his exams as a huge ~.
JOKE + VERB
▪ fall flat
▪
The audience wasn't very responsive and the ~s fell flat.
▪ be on sb
▪
I thought I'd play a trick on them, but in the end the ~ was on me.
PREPOSITION
▪ as a ~
▪
It was only said as a ~.
▪ ~ about
▪
Have you heard the ~ about the elephant and the mouse?
PHRASES
▪ make a ~ of sth
▪
We tried to make a ~ of our situation, but it wasn't really funny.
II.
verb
ADVERB
▪ half
▪
She was only half joking about being president one day.
▪ around
▪
Everyone just ~d around and enjoyed themselves.
▪ lamely , weakly
▪ good-naturedly , playfully
PREPOSITION
▪ about
▪
We ~d about the amount of equipment we had to carry.
▪ with
▪
She's always joking with her friends.
PHRASES
▪ be only joking
▪
Don't worry, I'm only joking!
▪ joking apart ( BrE ), joking aside (= used to show you are now being serious after you have said sth funny)
▪ laugh and ~
▪
They laughed and ~d as they walked along.
▪ you must be joking , you've got to be joking ( esp. AmE )
▪
No way am I doing that. You must be joking!