"Just Joking" Justification: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

Compare [[Ha Ha Only Serious]].

 

{{examples}}

 

* ''[[Detective Conan]]'': Whenever Kogoro makes one of his off-the-wall, no-basis-in-fact accusations and it gets shot down, he will frequently backpedal by saying he was just joking.

** Ai Haibara also always tag this to the end of anything that is actually real.

 

'''Lucifer''': Take me to the ship. Or I'll show you what makes ''me'' laugh. }}

 

 

* In the [[Adam Sandler]] film ''Jack and Jill'', Jack (played by Sandler) has a mexican gardener whose only purpose in the movie is to make tons and tons of horrifically racist Mexican jokes ("We just got over the border!" "This is by son Juan, my other son Juan, and my daughter Juanita.") and follow them up with "I'm just KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDING!".

* ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin and the King of Thieves]]''. Genie has made what could be seen as an extremely insensitive joke (that Aladdin isn't really required for a wedding to happen). "It's a joke! (deadpan) I do that."

* Mother Gothel from ''[[Tangled]]'' uses this quite frequently when talking to Rapunzel.

'''Gothel''': "Darling, look at that mirror. You know what I see? Is see a strong, confident, ''beautiful'' young lady. Oh, look, you're here too. Ahahahaha! I'm just teasing, stop taking everything so seriously!" }}

 

* ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' abuses this trope horrendously. If a lord says something to upset a favoured retainer, they usually claim it was a joke. Even if the statement that upset the person ''wasn't funny at all''.

* From [[The Bible]], [[Ur Example|Proverbs 26:18-19]]

and says, “I was only joking!” }}

* In the ''[[Captain Underpants]]'' book ''[[Overly Long Title|The Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds)]]'' George, Harold and Captain Underpants [[It Makes Sense in Context|jump out of a UFO]] and land SPLAT on the ground... or not; the narrator was kidding.

 

* In ''[[Toshiie to Matsu]]'', [[Oda Nobunaga]] attempts to pass off a particularly tasteless move (displaying the gold-plated skull of his sister's dead husband, and ordering her and her new fiancee to drink from the skullcap) on his part as a joke.

* Larry David in ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]'' makes frequent use of this (usually as a last resort if he needs something from whoever he offended).

* In the ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' episode "Judge Me Tender", a [[American Idol|Simon Cowell]] parody character issues one of these, then immediately retracts it, after saying both Hannah and the judge for whom she was filling in were boring.

* An episode of ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' has a new neighbor boy spreading malicious lies about Malcolm, turning the entire neighborhood against him. When Malcolm confronts him, the kid says, "Hey, it's just a joke. Lighten up," and continues doing it.

 

* As evidenced by the page quote, [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]] have expressed opinions on this trope.

* There's also [[The Smiths]]' "Bigmouth Strikes Again":

* In [[Barenaked Ladies]] song "The Flag" it's used with pretty dark overtones.

 

 

'''Satchel''': "Hey, I'm just sayin'!" }}

 

 

* During one episode of the [[Big Finish Doctor Who]] audio dramas, Peri and Erimem are currently posing as two princes who are supposed to be dead, and are as far as they know, stranded due to a temporal mishap. Erimem suggests suicide (to save the timeline) is the only answer, but then pretends she was just joking when hearing Peri's shocked response.

 

* Some comedians, such as Russell Peters, have received criticism for this.

* The author of the ''Stuff White People Like'' blog speaks on Sarah Silverman thusly: [http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/04/52-sarah-silverman/ Get it? It's not offensive, because when she says racist or sexist things she knows they are offensive. So it's okay.]

* [[Subverted]] by [[Jeff Foxworthy]] in one of his stand up acts. After making a joke about having cats stuffed by a taxidermist...

* Mike Birbiglia had a stand-up in which he talked about a girl he dated in college. She constantly would say belittling things to him and then add "just kidding!" at the end. After he realized that she had been cheating on him with several other guys, he tells [[Tear Jerker|how he just wished she'd have been there to say "just kidding!" to that]].

* [[Larry the Cable Guy]] does this a lot, in and out of character.

* [[Ricky Gervais]] has been accused of this, such as [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/13/stewart-lee-comedy-offensive-gervais here].

 

** Of course, with [[Faux Affably Evil|the Joker]], you never can tell....

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', your shipboard AI, EDI, will attempt to crack a few jokes, but ends up append these comments with the phrase "That was a joke" when the people listening don't find it funny, or are afraid she's gone rogue.

 

** Krusty the Clown on ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' deconstructs this after an offensive bit by outright saying, "When you look at me like that, it's a joke."

** Following Sideshow Bob's [[Heel Face Turn]] in "Brother From Another Series", he remarks that he still just might have the urge to kill Bart Simpson, only to quickly add "Joking, joking!" when Bart gets frightened.

 

* This is one of the typical excuses offered for the emotional and psychological torment inflicted by bullies.

** More generally, it seems to have become acceptable shorthand (at least among the sort who assume that anyone else would do the same) for "[[I Lied]]."

* Comedian Andrew O'Neill references this trope in his video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrgygfwnCJ0 I'm not being racist but... ]. In summary, he demonstrates that the phrase renders ''anything'' suspicious and disturbing.

* Humorist and U.S. Senator (DFL-Minn.) Al Franken has used the term "kidding on the square" to refer to a type of "joking" that's subtly, or not-so-subtly, serious in its intent.

*** "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke" only applies when you were joking right from the start, though.

**** No, "fuck 'em if they can't take a joke" applies when we're kidding but we're serious anyway. The "fuck 'em" part still stands, and that's the whole joke.

* Since this type of humor has become more popularized and people think they can hide behind it, it's been fairly common for newspaper columnists, for instance, to write straight editorials that are blatantly bigoted and then when they're called out say, "[[Parody Retcon|It was ''obviously'' meant to be satire!]]"... only to completely fall down when the time came to explain exactly ''what'' they were satirizing and why it deserved it.

** It is quite easy to fool people by beginning insults with "No offense, but..." Smart people would get [[Fridge Logic]] immediately. The key word here is "but."

* Infamously used by Jack Thompson to back out of his challenge to video game developers, when they actually created a violent video game to satirize themselves like he challenged them to. When he wouldn't make the donation to a charity as promised, the folks behind ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' [http://www.penny-arcade.com/docs/check.jpg footed the amount in his name]. For which he sued them for harassment, and tried to have them arrested.

* The [[Internet]]. "lol jk". 'Nuff said.

** [[Stephen Colbert]] then joined in, saying that his comments were just satire, and said on TV: "Sarah Palin, you're a fucking retard."

** One episode of [[Family Guy]] had a [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]] of an Alaskan governor's mentally handicapped child. [[Sarah Palin]] took offense to this, and replied with her usual reaction. The actress who played the character ''is herself mentally handicapped'', and responded to Sarah Palin with "my parents taught me to have a sense of humor about my life, instead of parading me around the country for pity votes."

* ''[[South Park]]'' seems to get immunity from criticism (at least since it has become popular) for piling all kinds of political incorrectness and [[Dead Baby Comedy]] into what is ostensibly a [[Animation Age Ghetto|kiddie cartoon show]] while older cartoons with material only about half as offensive (such as the infamous "Censored Eleven") are ''never'' shown on TV (sort of a reverse [[Grandfather Clause]], if you think about it). The justification is apparently something along the lines of "Well, Trey Parker and Matt Stone don't really believe in that stuff and are actually mocking it, so it's okay." Well, how do you know that older animators didn't do likewise?

* Very common excuse for misogynistic or otherwise discriminatory remarks, like "jokingly" saying that you'd like to rape a woman, and then blaming her for overreacting/being hysterical/having no sense of humour when she calls you out on it.

* PETA attacked ''[[Super Mario 3D Land]]'' on the grounds that Mario's Tanooki Suit promoted wearing fur. They resorted to "just a joke" after facing the [[Internet Backlash]].

* Stewart Lee, in [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/13/stewart-lee-comedy-offensive-gervais this] article, deconstructs this attitude and the recent reputation it has for symbolising a comedian as being 'brave' and 'non-PC'. He does it humourously, but underneath the humour is the point that sometimes this defence is sometimes just used by the comedian to handwave being a bullying jerk.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Rule of Funny]]

[[Category:Unexpected Reactions to This Index]]