What's the difference between jest and joke?

Jest


Definition:

  • (n.) A deed; an action; a gest.
  • (n.) A mask; a pageant; an interlude.
  • (n.) Something done or said in order to amuse; a joke; a witticism; a jocose or sportive remark or phrase. See Synonyms under Jest, v. i.
  • (v. i.) The object of laughter or sport; a laughingstock.
  • (v. i.) To take part in a merrymaking; -- especially, to act in a mask or interlude.
  • (v. i.) To make merriment by words or actions; to joke; to make light of anything.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Dawn Powell: A Time to Be Born (1942) Joseph Heller: Catch-22 (1961) Kurt Vonnegut: Breakfast of Champions (1973) David Foster Wallace: Infinite Jest (1996) The American comedy, generally speaking, is a scatological thing, or a repository of racial prejudice or gender stereotypes.
  • (2) Defining what constitutes merely a jest and what is of a "menacing character" has not been easy for the judges.
  • (3) In Hall’s farewell season of Shakespeare’s late romances in 1988, he led the company alongside Michael Bryant and Eileen Atkins , playing a clenched and possessed Leontes in The Winter’s Tale; an Italianate, jesting Iachimo in Cymbeline; and a gloriously drunken Trinculo in The Tempest (he played Prospero for Adrian Noble at the Theatre Royal, Bath, in 2012).
  • (4) The 2010 book was written by Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky, and is what it says on the tin: an account of a road trip with the author as he went across the US promoting his 1,100-page novel Infinite Jest, recalling the conversations the pair have and the fame that Foster Wallace is starting to experience.
  • (5) From Glasgow, Leeds , Bristol and Dublin , to New York , San Diego and Vancouver , to Perth , Melbourne and Sydney , groups of non-believers will be getting together to form their own monthly Sunday Assemblies, with the movement's founders – the standup comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans – visiting the fledgling congregations in what they are calling, only partly in jest, a "global missionary tour".
  • (6) I did not say so, thank God, even in jest, otherwise our encounter could have been even worse than it was.
  • (7) "That was totally in jest," he added, saying he would "tone down my sense of humour until I become president, because America needs to get a sense of humour".
  • (8) Green's husband Wallace, best known for the novel Infinite Jest, committed suicide at home in 2008 , and was found by Green.
  • (9) "F alsehood flies," wrote Jonathan Swift 300 years ago, "and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect."
  • (10) ‘What is truth?” said jesting Pilate – in Bacon’s famous phrase.
  • (11) It was a jibe made in jest by a man who had much fondness for him.
  • (12) In comments that a source said were largely made in jest, Johnson – who is also the Conservative candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip – attacked the former prime minister over his speech in support of Labour’s current leader Ed Miliband.
  • (13) Although this article is presented in jest, I am not above anything that works to get contributions for my newsletter.
  • (14) I saw Brand's Messiah Complex show in London the other week, in which he – in jest, of course – compares himself to Che Guevara, Gandhi, Malcolm X and Christ.
  • (15) He likes winding people up, being controversial for the sake of it and more often than not what he says is in jest.
  • (16) In jest or in earnest, there is a rank hypocrisy here that sits uncomfortably with me.
  • (17) It was planned as the much-anticipated follow-up to Infinite Jest , the teeming 1,000-page bleakly comic masterpiece that had established Wallace, at 34, as the man most likely to redefine the scope and voice of the American novel.
  • (18) One 18th-century classicist is even said to have planned to write a scholarly edition of the best-known joke book of that period, Joe Miller's Jests , in order to show that every single joke in it was descended from the ancient Laughter Lover .
  • (19) Eurozone unlocks €10.3bn bailout loan for Greece Read more I jest of course.
  • (20) A number of edits, apparently made in jest, have been picked up by the automatic twitter bot Congress Edits , which monitors Wikipedia for changes to the site made by accounts with IP addresses coming from inside the US legislature.

Joke


Definition:

  • (n.) Something said for the sake of exciting a laugh; something witty or sportive (commonly indicating more of hilarity or humor than jest); a jest; a witticism; as, to crack good-natured jokes.
  • (n.) Something not said seriously, or not actually meant; something done in sport.
  • (v. t.) To make merry with; to make jokes upon; to rally; to banter; as, to joke a comrade.
  • (v. i.) To do something for sport, or as a joke; to be merry in words or actions; to jest.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In platform shoes to emulate Johnson's height, and with the aid of prosthetic earlobes, Cranston becomes the 36th president: he bullies and cajoles, flatters and snarls and barks, tells dirty jokes or glows with idealism as required, and delivers the famous "Johnson treatment" to everyone from Martin Luther King to the racist Alabama governor George Wallace.
  • (2) "The sending off was a joke, and I thought the penalty was even worse," Bruce said.
  • (3) Fringe 2009 also welcomes back Aussie standup Jim Jeffries , whose jokes include: "Women to me are like public toilets.
  • (4) Greek officials categorically denied the report with many describing it as a "joke".
  • (5) Two years later, Trump tweeted that “Obama’s motto” was: “If I don’t go on taxpayer funded vacations & constantly fundraise then the terrorists win.” The joke, it turns out, is on Trump.
  • (6) It’s gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, social background, and – most important of all, as far as I’m concerned – diversity of thought.” Diversity needs action beyond the Oscars | Letters Read more He may have provided the Richard Littlejohn wishlist from hell – you know the one, about the one-legged black lesbian in a hijab favoured by the politically correct – but as a Hollywood A-lister, the joke’s no longer on him.
  • (7) When we arrived, he would instruct us to spend the morning composing a song or a poem, or inventing a joke or a charade.
  • (8) Having long been accustomed to being the butt of other politicians' jokes, however, Farage is relishing what may yet become the last laugh.
  • (9) Quizzed by one journalist, Gabrielli joked that "the first 12 hours are the most dangerous".
  • (10) I think the “horror and outrage” Roberts complains of were more like hilarity, and the story still makes me laugh (as do many others on Mumsnet, which is full of jokes as well as acronyms for everything).
  • (11) Musk revealed his love for Kerbal Space Program in a Q&A in Reddit , joking (or maybe not?)
  • (12) One of the punters came up to me after and said that I seemed confident, but he’d spent the whole time wondering when I was going to tell a joke.
  • (13) In a recent episode of the BBC Radio 4 comedy Alun Cochrane's Fun House , Cochrane joked of how he sleeps better in the living room.
  • (14) I’m just going to prepare myself for next year, for the Olympics and come out even stronger.” Questioned over Bolt’s joking accusation, Gatlin added: “I want my money back.
  • (15) Intricate is the key word, as screwball dialogue plays off layered wordplay, recurring jokes and referential callbacks to build to the sort of laughs that hit you twice: an initial belly laugh followed, a few minutes later, by the crafty laugh of recognition.
  • (16) His art knows this and tries to deal with it by way of jokes and excess.
  • (17) James Cleverly, MP for Braintree, who supported Johnson’s aborted leadership bid before backing May, said joking about him risked undermining the foreign secretary.
  • (18) It would also be likely to lend scope to ill-conceived prosecutions jeopardising ordinary free speech rights, such as the notorious Twitter Joke Trial .
  • (19) This, Brown jokes, counts as good weather for Scotland.
  • (20) December 3, 2013 And fellow presenters took the opportunity for some jokes at his expense.