What's the difference between joke and sham?

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.

Sham


Definition:

  • (n.) That which deceives expectation; any trick, fraud, or device that deludes and disappoint; a make-believe; delusion; imposture, humbug.
  • (n.) A false front, or removable ornamental covering.
  • (a.) False; counterfeit; pretended; feigned; unreal; as, a sham fight.
  • (v. t.) To trick; to cheat; to deceive or delude with false pretenses.
  • (v. t.) To obtrude by fraud or imposition.
  • (v. t.) To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign.
  • (v. i.) To make false pretenses; to deceive; to feign; to impose.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The results indicated that smoke, as opposed to sham puffs, significantly reduced reports of cigarette craving, and local anesthesia significantly blocked this immediate reduction in craving produced by smoke inhalation.
  • (2) Five days later, the animals were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: Group 1 received intracranial implantation of controlled-release polymers containing dexamethasone; Group 2 received intraperitoneal implantation of controlled-release polymers containing dexamethasone; Group 3 received serial intraperitoneal injections of dexamethasone; and Group 4 received sham treatment.
  • (3) In contrast sham-hemodialysis in group CA and group PS, respectively, did not result in significant increases in amino acid efflux from the leg implying that the protein catabolic effect of blood membrane contact depends on the chemical properties of dialysis membranes.
  • (4) Meanwhile Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, waiting anxiously for news of the scale of the Labour advance in his first nationwide electoral test, will urge the electorate not to be duped by the promise of a coalition mark 2, predicting sham concessions by the Conservatives .
  • (5) The plasma renin activity of the 1 day post-stenosis rats showed 65% higher activity than the sham controls with no significant change in the 30-60 days post-stenosis.
  • (6) The results indicate that, regardless of the photoperiod, no clear functional relationship can be found between the avian pineal gland and thyroid function, although a transitory increase in T4 levels was seen in both pinealectomized and sham-operated birds shortly after the operations.
  • (7) The amounts of erythropoietin produced in animals subjected to hepatectomy are significantly higher than those observed in sham-operated animals.
  • (8) However, stimulation of the release of NTLI by intraduodenal administration of oleic acid (0.2 ml) resulted in significantly higher p-NTLI levels in the nephrectomized rats than in the sham operated rats.
  • (9) Three groups of male rats received lesions of AP and another 3 groups received sham lesion.
  • (10) Pretreatment with CV6209 had no significant influence on these parameters in sham-operated animals.
  • (11) We found that kidney extracts from 6 h and 24 h uninephrectomized rats increased [3H]thymidine incorporation into tubular cell DNA, dose-dependently, compared to those from sham-operated rats.
  • (12) The sizes of adrenaline (A) and noradrenaline (N) cells in the adrenal medulla of nonoperated (NO), sham-operated (SPX), and pinealectomized (PX) male rats (n = 126) were investigated by quantitative light microscopy.
  • (13) The concentrations and total content of the nicotinamide nucleotides were measured in the livers of rats at various times after partial hepatectomy and laparotomy (sham hepatectomy) and correlated with other events in the regeneration process.
  • (14) The volume densities of the differing strial components from steroid-administered animals were determined to approximate those of sham-adrenalectomized animals in general.
  • (15) With five daily 1-hr occlusions of the hepatic artery, rats benefited from significantly reduced tumor growth rates compared with controls that underwent sham operation (P less than 0.05).
  • (16) In the dynamic phase the weight of interscapular brown adipose tissue was significantly increased in the VMH-lesioned rats, but the specific GDP binding was depressed both in the morning and afternoon when compared with either the sham-operated or PVN-lesioned groups.
  • (17) There were no changes in the joints which had sham operations.
  • (18) In contrast, in Px-SUC both masses were comparable to the sham groups.
  • (19) Only at 3 days did total plasma volume of SAD rats show a modest reduction of about 16% (P less than 0.05 vs. sham-operated plus unoperated controls).
  • (20) The binding of 125I-labeled epidermal growth factor (EGF) was compared in acini isolated from the regenerating remnant following 90% partial pancreatectomy (ppx) and from the pancreas of sham-pancreatectomized (sham-ppx) rats.