Talk:Just a joke

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Very good stuff, Ioe.

I actually assumed we had a similar article on this already, but it seems like I was mistaken. Well, it's good that we have it now. It's definitely a very common rhetorical device, so much so that TV Tropes has a list of examples.

I remember when Trump pulled it out against Biden 4 years ago, at the first presidential debate (you might remember the whole 'inject bleach to kill Covid' thing):

Biden: "He said this would be gone away. Whether it'd be gone -- miraculously, like a miracle. By the way, maybe you could inject some bleach in your arm and that would take care of it."

Trump: "That was said sarcastically, you know that. That was said sarcastically."

Can't wait for more of that later this year. FML. - Rairyu75 (Talk) 02:37, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

That tv tropes article in fact partially inspired me to write this article Ioe bidome (talk) 02:39, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

Additional inspiration

Much like Rairyu75 I could've sworn that we already had a thing like this. I would consider this a highly missional and important topic and would like to chime in with another perspective on the "just a joke" thing: Not how it serves as an excuse for bigots and assholes (I like that you bring up the term "Schrödinger's douchebag"), but how posting misinformation as a joke, even if well-intentioned, causes damage to our society. A skeptic YouTuber named "Captain Disillusion" put it better than I ever could in two of his videos. If you believe it fits the scope of the article I can type it out into the draft, until then I will just drop the two links with timestamps attached so that we and I can find it again quickly, later:

YouTube: Captain Disillusion - Escherian Stairwell Deconstruction - Starts at t=652 (Watch until 12:04.)

YouTube: Captain Disillusion - Gateway to Sedona DEBUNK - Starts at t=664 (Watch until 12:54.)

I think this article would benefit from talking about "just a joke" not just as an excuse, but also to widen it's scope to adress misinformation posted under this guise. Let me know what you think, ULTRACOMFY (talk) 09:52, 21 February 2024 (UTC)