ROGET'S THESAURUS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND PHRASES ...

farce, buffoonery, fooling, tomfoolery; shenanigan [U.S.], harlequinade &c 599
[Obs.]; broad farce, broad humor; fun, espieglerie [Fr.]; vis comica [Lat.].
jocularity; jocosity, jocoseness † ; facetiousness; waggery, waggishness; whimsicality;
comicality &c 853.
banter, badinage, retort, repartee, smartness, ready wit, quid-pro-quo; ridicule &c 856.
jest, joke, jape, jibe; facetiae [Lat.], levity, quips and cranks; capital joke; canorae
nugae [Lat.]; standing jest, standing joke, private joke, conceit, quip, quirk, crank,
quiddity, concetto † , plaisanterie [Fr.], brilliant idea; merry thought, bright thought, happy
thought; sally; flash of wit, flash of merriment; scintillation; mot [Fr.], mot pour rire
[Fr.]; witticism, smart saying, bon-mot, jeu d'esprit [Fr.], epigram; jest book; dry joke,
quodlibet, cream of the jest.
word-play, jeu de mots [Fr.]; play of words, play upon words; pun, punning; double
entente, double entendre &c (ambiguity) 520 [Fr.]; quibble, verbal quibble; conundrum
&c (riddle) 533; anagram, acrostic, double acrostic, trifling, idle conceit, turlupinade † .
old joke, tired joke, flat joke, Joe Miller † .
V. joke, jest, crack a joke, make a joke, jape, cut jokes; perpetrate a joke; pun, perpetrate
a pun; make fun of, make merry with; kid, kid around, fool around; set the table in a roar
&c (amuse) 840.
retort; banter &c (ridicule) 856; ridentem dicere verum [Lat.]; joke at one's expense.
take in jest.
[make a joke which is not funny] bomb, fall flat; go over like a lead balloon.
Adj. witty, attic; quick-witted, nimble-witted; smart; jocular, jocose, humorous;
facetious, waggish, whimsical; kidding, joking, puckish; playful &c 840; merry and wise;
pleasant, sprightly, light, spirituel † , sparkling, epigrammatic, full of point, ben trovato
[It]; comic &c 853.
zany, madcap.
funny, amusing &c (amusement) 840.
Adv. jokingly, in joke, in jest, in sport, in play.
Phr. adhibenda est in jocando moderatio [Lat.]; gentle dullness ever loves a joke [Pope];
leave this keen encounter of our wits [Richard III]; just joking, just kidding; surely you
jest!.
843. Dullness -- N. dullness, heaviness, flatness; infestivity † &c 837, stupidity &c 499;
want of originality; dearth of ideas.
prose, matter of fact; heavy book, conte a dormir debout [Fr.]; platitude.
V. be dull &c adj.; prose, take au serieux [Fr.], be caught napping.
render dull &c adj.; damp, depress, throw cold water on, lay a wet blanket on; fall flat
upon the ear.
no joke, serious matter (importance) 642.
Adj. dull, dull as ditch water; unentertaining, uninteresting, flat, dry as dust; unfunny,
unlively † , logy [U.S.]; unimaginative; insulse † ; dry as dust; prosy, prosing, prosaic;
matter of fact, commonplace, pedestrian, pointless; weary stale flat and unprofitable
[Hamlet].
stupid, slow, flat, insipid, vapid, humdrum, monotonous; melancholic &c 837; stolid
&c 499; plodding.
boring, tiresome, tedious &c 841.