A ten-slide series on the first move in the playbook: say it as a joke, see how it lands, then decide whether you meant it. This page has the studies, the court ruling, and every public statement the cards mention, with dates, links, and what each one cannot tell you.
The full text of every card, in order, with the card itself under each one. Select a card to open it full size.
Grouped by card. Each source has a summary of what it says, a scope line saying how far it reaches, and a link to the original.
HuffPost obtained and published the 17-page writers’ guide of The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website. In a section on tone, the guide tells writers that the unindoctrinated should not be able to tell whether they are joking. It says the tone should be light because most people are not comfortable with open hatred, and it describes packing the message inside humor as a delivery method.
An analysis of three websites that presented racist humor and sympathized with the Klan. Billig looked at the disclaimers around the jokes as closely as the jokes, and concluded that the “just a joke” framing does not hold up even on the sites’ own terms.
Greene argues that the alt-right borrows the ironic style of satire to attract and radicalize supporters while keeping deniability, and pairs right-wing and left-wing examples to show the same style used for different ends.
Two experiments with male undergraduates. In the first, with 73 men, those who scored higher in hostile sexism said they would donate less to a women’s organization after reading sexist jokes, but not after neutral jokes or after the same sexist ideas stated without humor. In the second, with 30 men, those higher in hostile sexism assigned a larger share of a budget cut to a women’s student group after sexist comedy skits than after neutral ones.
Women received the same sexist remark by instant message, phrased either seriously or as a joke, and their real replies were coded. The joke version made the speaker seem less sexist, and as that impression fell, so did the women’s pushback. Two experiments, with 195 and 134 women.
Across three studies in Canada, people who more strongly preferred group hierarchy reacted more favorably to jokes about a low-status group, and that link ran almost entirely through the belief that a joke is just a joke.
Undergraduates read comedians’ monologues on social issues, or serious versions of the same arguments. The funny versions were dismissed as “just joking” more often, even though readers thought about them just as much.
At a briefing on April 23, 2020, after an official described disinfectant killing the virus on surfaces, the president asked whether something like that could be done by injection. The next day, asked to clarify, he said he had been asking the question sarcastically.
On a radio show, Biden said that voters who had trouble choosing between him and his opponent were not Black. A senior adviser said the same day that the comments were in jest. That afternoon Biden said he should not have been such a wise guy.
As a candidate in 2016, Duterte said he would ride a jet ski to disputed islands and plant the Philippine flag. In a taped address five years later, under criticism of his policy toward China, he said the promise had been a pure campaign joke.
Kerry told students that if they did not make an effort in school they could get stuck in Iraq, which was heard as a slight on troops. He said he was sorry about a botched joke, and aides said he had fumbled a prepared line aimed at the president.
The president posted an AI-generated image of himself as a robed healer and deleted it the next morning after criticism from Christian conservatives. He told reporters he had thought it showed him as a doctor. The vice president said the same day that he thought the president was posting a joke.
At a town hall, Trudeau interrupted a woman who said “mankind” to suggest “peoplekind.” After several days of ridicule he said he had made a dumb joke.
A Pepsi commercial showed a Harrier fighter jet with the caption 7,000,000 Pepsi Points. John Leonard sent in 15 points and a check for $700,008.50 and asked for the jet. Pepsi replied that the jet was fanciful and included to make the ad humorous, and its ad agency called it clearly a joke. The court ruled for Pepsi, finding that no objective person could reasonably have concluded the commercial offered a real jet.
In a lawsuit over the marketing of vitaminwater, the judge wrote that at oral argument the defendants suggested no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking the drink was a healthy beverage, because its sweet taste puts consumers on notice that it contains sugar. He rejected the argument at that stage of the case. The case settled in 2016 with label changes.
72 participants each wrote two accounts: one of a time they were teased and one of a time they teased someone else. In the teaser role, people described the event as more humorous and less damaging than people did in the target role. Teasers also reported more guilt.
In three experiments, people who were confronted after making a stereotyped inference were less likely to give stereotyped responses afterward, regardless of who confronted them or how hostile the confrontation was. Hostile confrontations drew more negative feelings toward the person objecting.
164 participants read scenarios in which someone answered a sexist joke. People who answered with humor were rated more likeable but less effective than people who answered seriously.
I started the playbook here because this is the move my kids see most. It runs through memes, group chats, and comment sections, and it almost never looks like manipulation. It looks like fun.
What makes it work is the exit. Say the thing as a joke and you get to watch the room before you decide whether you meant it. If people laugh, it stands. If they object, they are the ones with the problem.
I do not think the answer is to stop joking, or to treat every joke as a test. The court in the Pepsi case used a standard I keep coming back to: not what the speaker says afterward, but what a reasonable listener understood at the time.
So that is what I want mine to carry. Do not hide behind a laugh, and do not laugh to keep the peace.