Como falo em inglês: Levar na brincadeira

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Jul 06
Inglês Online Levar na brincadeira

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Hi, all!  Hoje eu falo sobre idioms com as palavras joke e laugh.

Transcrição

Hey, everybody. This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.

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Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast, please do so. The more comments for the Inglês Online podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

Are you able to take a joke? When your friends are having a good laugh at your expense, are you able to join them and have a good laugh yourself? Let’s be frank here: some people are and some people aren’t. Some people are great at taking a joke. They’re able to laugh it off and go on with their business, and not hold a grudge.

There are people, however, that don’t do so well. Maybe because they’re more sensitive, or because of the environment they grew up in, they’re not so great at taking a joke. Some people feel hurt, and it’s best not to make them the butt of any more jokes.

OK – so I’ve just used lots of idioms and collocations related to joking. Let’s break this down and take a closer look at a few of them. My initial question was “Are you able to take a joke?” I’m actually curious and I would like to hear from you guys if you’re usually able to take jokes. That means, in general, that when you’re the butt of a joke, you don’t really care that much.  That’s the expression: butt of the joke.

As you may or may not know, ‘butt’ is a body part. It is our posterior, our derrière (that’s a French word), or, as people say in the UK, our bottom. When someone is the butt of a joke, that means that they’re the object of ridicule with that joke. Whoever told that joke is making fun of that person; that person is the butt of the joke.

So if that person can, in general, take a joke, he or she will be able to laugh it off. Of course, there are jokes and jokes. Some jokes can go too far and sometimes they are truly insults disguised as jokes. However, let’s say we’re talking about a good-natured joke. Let’s say your friend John is the butt of the joke. And let’s say that John is the kind of guy who can take a joke. He’s pretty chilled and has a great sense of humour.

So when your other friends make a joke at John’s expense, he doesn’t care. In fact, he joins in and even laughs with them. John doesn’t mind being the butt of the joke. He can take a bit of ridicule from his friends. The truth is, John knows his friends can take a joke as well.

So when one of you makes a joke at John’s expense, or in other words – when John is the butt of the joke, he just laughs it off. When you laugh something off, that means you’re sort of treating a problem, or an unpleasant situation, as something unimportant… and you’re showing that it’s not that important by laughing at it.

Now, tell me the truth: can you take a joke? Do you get hurt every time you’re the butt of the joke? Let me know in the comments and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

  • take a joke
  • butt of the joke
  • laugh it off

Vocabulary

at someone’s expense = às custas de alguém

hold a grudge = guardar rancor

Ana
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Rick47 22/03/2017

That’s a great opportunity for learning English and improve the vocabulary

DOMINICK 30/07/2016

Ohh Podcasts are very good thanks!, are of big help for me

José Antonio 14/07/2016

Estou sentindo falta da postagem da semana.

Luiz 14/07/2016

UAU!!! Que excelente site para aprender inglês!!!

Albukerk 11/07/2016

Thank you Ana Luiza.

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