Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 498, Joking and Making Fun of People.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 498.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This episode is called Joking and Making Fun of People.
It's a dialogue between Dimitri and Charlene.
Let's get started.
Stan is really miffed at you.
All of that teasing at lunch really upset him.
What?
I was just poking fun at him for trying to hit on the new young receptionist.
You called him an old goat.
I said that tongue in cheek.
If he didn't find that funny, then he can't take a joke.
What about last week when you told that joke about fat people trying to dance and you made him the butt of the joke?
Everybody knows I'm the class clown around here and I make wisecracks about everybody.
Nobody else is as thin-skinned as Stan.
I wouldn't be so sure about that.
I suggest you watch your back.
The next joke may be on you.
Oh, nothing.
I just think it may be time for some payback.
Big time.
Dimitri says to Charlene, Stan is really miffed at you.
Stan is a man's name.
To be miffed, M-I-F-F-E-D, at someone means to be mad at someone, to be upset or angry with someone.
Miffed usually is a little less severe than mad.
It's a little less serious, perhaps.
Dimitri says all of that teasing at lunch really upset him.
To tease, T-E-A-S-E, as a verb means to make jokes about someone, but in a friendly way.
To laugh at something someone has done, but you're not trying to be mean.
It's not something that you are doing to hurt the other person.
Tease actually has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations of that term.
Charlene says, what?
She's surprised.
I was just poking fun at him.
To poke, P-O-K-E, fun at someone. is an expression that means to make jokes about someone.
However, it could be in a friendly way, like teasing, but it might also be in an unfriendly way, in order to hurt that person.
The expression can be used for both cases.
It just depends on the context.
Charlene however, believes that She was just teasing him, and she uses the expression to poke fun at him in a friendly way.
Why is she poking fun at him?
Well, because Stan was trying to hit on the new young receptionist.
To hit on someone is a two-word phrasal verb, meaning hit.
To say something to another person that you are romantically interested in.
When a man comes up to a woman and says, come here often, meaning do you come to this place often?
He might be hitting on her.
He might be trying to get her romantically interested in him.
Of course, that's not a very good way to start.
In fact...
That expression, come here often, is used now as a joke.
It's a terrible way to try to hit on a girl or a woman.
I know I've tried it.
It hasn't worked very well.
To hit is a verb that has many different meanings in English depending on the other words used, the other prepositions, the other phrasal verbs.
Take a look at our learning guide for an explanation of a few of those.
Poor Stan was trying to hit on the young new receptionist.
A receptionist is a person in an office whose job it is to answer the phone and to welcome people as they walk into the office, if they are people who are visiting.
So Dimitri says, you called him an old goat.
That's what Charlene said about Stan.
A goat is... an animal, not a particularly attractive animal.
So most people would consider that an insult to call someone an old goat.
Charlene says The expression tongue in cheek C-H-E-E-K means as a joke, not seriously, in a joking way.
She made a tongue in cheek comment about wanting to go swimming.
She wasn't serious.
She was joking.
In this case, Stan did not think it was a joke.
Charlene goes on to say that if he didn't find that funny, then he can't take a joke.
To take a joke or to be able to take a joke means that you can laugh at yourself.
You can laugh at the world.
To not be able to take a joke means that you are too serious, that you don't find something funny.
You can't find the humor in things.
Dimitri says what about last week when you told that joke about fat people trying to dance and you made him the butt of the joke?
Dimitri is bringing up or bringing to Charlene's attention another example of something that she said that was mean, that wasn't just teasing.
She made a joke about people who are overweight trying to dance and she made Stan the butt B-U-T-T of the joke.
The butt of a joke or the butt of the joke is the person about whom a joke makes fun.
It is the person who is being laughed at.
And here, it usually isn't in a friendly way.
Charlene says The class clown is an expression that comes from school, where there is someone in your class that always makes jokes, that is always trying to be funny.
When you have a group of students, there's usually a couple of people who always want to be the funny one, the ones making jokes.
This is the class clown.
A clown is someone who tries to make other people laugh, especially young children, usually by putting on a strange costume, strange clothes and painting their faces.
Here it's more used as a general expression to be the person who tries to be funny in the group.
In this case, at the company where Charlene and Dimitri work.
Charlene says, W-I-S-E-C-R-A-C-K is a joke.
It's a funny comment, something that is supposed to be clever and funny.
She says that nobody else is as thin-skinned as Stan.
To have thin skin is an expression that means to be easily offended or upset.
Someone who can't laugh at themselves.
Or it could also mean someone who cannot take criticism without being personally hurt.
The opposite is thick skin.
If someone says he has a thick skin, they mean that he's not bothered by criticism or by jokes.
He doesn't take it personally.
Charlene is saying that, in this case, Stan is thin-skinned.
Well, Dimitri says, I wouldn't be too sure about that or I wouldn't be so sure about that.
He says, I suggest you watch your back.
The expression to watch your back means to be cautious or to be careful to try to protect yourself from something that might happen to you.
The idea is that other people may try to hurt you or attack you.
He says the next joke may be on you.
When a joke is on someone, that means it's about someone or that person is going to be the butt of the joke, the person that everyone else will be joking about.
Demetrius saying to Charlene, the joke may be on you.
You may be the person that we laugh at.
Charlene says, why?
What have you heard?
Dimitri says, oh, nothing.
It just may be time for some payback.
Payback, one word, means revenge.
Something that you do to another person to get even.
Something bad you do to another person because they did something bad to you.
That's called payback.
Dimitri then uses the expression big time.
He says, I just think it may be time for some payback.
Big time.
Big time is an informal expression, not something you would want to use at work necessarily, but among friends.
That means something important, important. something significant in a big way.
For example, you go to Las Vegas and you gamble because Las Vegas is famous for people going to gamble their money on cards or other games and you lose 1000.
Someone asks you, did you lose any money in Las Vegas?
And you say, oh yeah, big time, meaning a lot in that case.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Stan is really miffed at you.
All of that teasing at lunch really upset him.
What?
I was just poking fun at him for trying to hit on the new young receptionist.
You called him an old goat.
I said that tongue-in-cheek.
If he didn't find that funny, then he can't take a joke.
What about last week when you told that joke about fat people trying to dance and you made him the butt of the joke?
Everybody knows I'm the class clown around here, and I make wisecracks about everybody.
Nobody else is as thin-skinned as Stan.
I wouldn't be so sure about that.
I suggest you watch your back.
The next joke may be on you.
Why?
What have you heard?
Oh, nothing.
I just think it may be time for some payback.
Big time.
The script was written for this episode by our wisecracking writer, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
