 English Vocabulary for Joking and Humor from espressoenglish.net A joke is a funny comment or short story that is supposed to make people laugh. Let's learn some English vocabulary related to jokes and humor. Remember, if you'd like to learn a lot more vocabulary words, you can do that inside my vocabulary builder course. First of all, we always tell a joke, never say a joke, and sometimes you'll also hear the informal expression crack a joke, which means the same thing, to tell a joke. For example, before starting my speech, I told a joke to make the audience laugh. My sister's so funny, she's always cracking jokes. Crack up or burst out laughing. These expressions mean to start laughing suddenly. This can be in response to a joke or to a funny situation in general. For example, my father always tells jokes that make everyone crack up. Everyone burst out laughing when I tripped and fell on my face. Hilarious. Something that is funny makes you laugh, and the word hilarious means very funny or extremely funny. For example, the last comedian who performed was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. I don't get it. This is an informal way to say I don't understand. It can be used in response to a joke in which you don't understand why it's funny or for not understanding things in general. For example, everyone else laughed at that line in the movie, but I don't get it. Why is it so funny? A joke fell flat. If a joke fell flat, it means that the joke was unsuccessful. Nobody listening to it laughed or thought it was funny. For example, I told a little joke during my job interview, but unfortunately it fell flat. An offensive joke or a tasteless joke. Some jokes make other people feel bad or insulted. These can be described as offensive. A similar expression is to describe a joke as tasteless. It means it was socially impolite and failed to account for other people's feelings. You can also say a joke was in bad taste or in poor taste. For example, you shouldn't joke about people with disabilities. It's offensive. It's too bad the movie had so many tasteless jokes about women's intelligence. The butt of the joke. If someone is the butt of the joke, it means he or she is the object of the joke. The joke is about him or her. Some people don't mind being the butt of the joke, but other people find it embarrassing. For example, my older brother always made me the butt of his jokes and it got really annoying. Laughing stock. If someone is a laughing stock, it means he or she is acting so ridiculous or stupid that many other people are laughing at him or her. For example, I was the laughing stock of the company after I accidentally posted an embarrassing picture on the website. Just kidding. This expression is a way to say, I'm only joking. I'm not speaking seriously. After making a comment that someone might misunderstand if they think you are being serious. For example, I'm very short and my boyfriend used to say that he felt like he was dating a child, but he was just kidding. Tease someone or make fun of someone. These expressions mean to make little comments about someone which are rather funny but also may be slightly insulting or embarrass the person. Teasing or making fun of someone can be light and friendly. For example, if you have a good relationship with the person so they find the teasing funny and don't take it seriously, or it can be mean and rude. For example, if the comments are really making the person feel bad about themselves. Here are some examples of light or friendly teasing. I always tease my husband about not knowing how to fold a shirt properly. My best friend makes fun of me for being late all the time. And here are some examples of teasing that makes the person feel bad. The kids at school teased me a lot because I was fat. I was hurt when I found out my coworkers were making fun of my accent. No joke and no laughing matter. Saying something is no joke or no laughing matter means it's serious. It is not something to take lightly. No laughing matter in particular is often used when someone is joking about or laughing at something that deserves more serious consideration. For example, getting a virus on your computer is no joke. It can really do a lot of damage. The guy grabbed a girl's butt and thought it was funny but sexual assault is no laughing matter. Now put it into practice. Can you write a comment on this video using two to three of the words from this lesson in sentences? Go ahead and try. In my vocabulary builder courses, you can learn hundreds of new words and put them into practice. After every lesson, there are quizzes and short answer questions where you can send me your answers and I'll correct them to see if you're using your new vocabulary correctly. Click on the link in the video for more information about the vocabulary builder courses.