Sentence examples for merely a joke from inspiring English sources
He said the photo had been merely "a joke".
But "Royal Madness" is not merely a joke.
For Watkins, as for Wodehouse, it was merely a joke.
The company later said it was merely a joke, but the comment drew sharp criticism.
It could perhaps have been "merely a joke in poor taste" said a spokeswoman.
He contended on his blog that he was merely playing a joke on Mr. Allnatt, who happens to be the agent who sold him that Mata Grande villa.
When President Trump praises Xi Jinping's power grab to become China's president for life and suggests, "Maybe we'll want to give that a shot someday," it is irresponsible for The Times to frame this merely as a joke.
"The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart, accepting the award for variety show (snatched from the more deserving "Colbert Report"), merely made a joke about watching the football game on NBC.
That's true of insults as well; it also is true of ethnic and gender provocations — because, with the French rhetorical gift for detaching language from action, if what is said is merely sociable — a joke — then it doesn't really mean anything bad.
Lange refused to apologize to those he felt were unfairly lambasting him for merely "telling a joke".
