English

Noun

bad joke ‎(plural bad jokes)

1. (idiomatic) A situation that is badly planned, or illogical.

   Mayor Smith's new traffic rules were a bad joke.

   • 1938, Robert William Seton-Watson, Britain and the Dictators: A Survey of Post-war British Policy, page 172

     Disarmament must be total, or it was merely "a bad joke".

   • 1940, Kenelm Foss, Here Lies Richard Brinsley Sheridan, page 267

     But it is amusing to note that whenever the tables were turned on him he would mutter "Bad joke. Very bad joke".

   • 1986, Claire Martin, The Legacy, page 25

     "Maybe it was just a bad joke. " "A bad joke!" shrieked David, and in that cry I could detect all the ancient terrors of Israel.

   • 2002, Mikael af Malmborg, Bo Stråth, The Meaning of Europe, page 272

     It is this bad joke which, almost one century later, was still to be found in the government's campaign of 'We are Europe' from 1994.

   • 2002, Cesar Guerra, Hijacked to Havana!, page 28

     This might be a bad joke for you and to the people able to fly back to Miami but this is not a joke at all to me.

   • 2007, Keith Olbarmann, Countdown with Keith Olbermann

     Upon seeing Keyes' face, 15 MSNBC executives promptly resigned. Alan Keyes? Alan Keyes is Making Sense Alan Keyes? You've gotta be kidding me. Incidentally, the name of that show always seemed like a bad joke to me.

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