no joke

English

Phrase

no joke

1. Emphasizing the seriousness or truthfulness of a statement.
   • 2000, Brandweek - Volume 41, Issues 18-22, page 140:

     No joke: In February, single copy sales spiked an average 1,116 weekdays and 1,600 on Sundays, an increase Castaneda says can be attributed at least in part to the custody and asylum struggle over the six-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor.

   • 2011, Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before The War:

     Well over a hundred urban warriors who weren't afraid to die had a bone to pick with me. No joke.

   • 2018, N. J. Schrock, Incense Rising:

     lightning just struck Jerzeybell. No joke— saw it blow!

   • 2018, Brian Boone, The Jokiest Joking Knock-Knock Joke Book Ever Written:

     No Joke! We put together more than 1,000 knock-knock jokes about every subject under the sun, along with some hilarious illustrations!

   • 2022, Johnny Ruffo, No Finish Line:

     No joke, I was making $50 a day after tax and working so many hours that I had neither the time nor energy to even think about making music.

Noun

no joke

1. Something that should be taken seriously; not something that should be laughed about.

   Synonym: no laughing matter

   • 1891, Canada. Parliament. House of Commons, Official Reports of the Debates of the House of Commons, page 3743:

     But, sir, it is not a farce to the Canadian people; it is no joke to the Canadian tax-payer. If it is either a farce or a joke, they must foot the bill. No , it is no joke to them; it is something else, and something a great deal worse .

   • 1893 January 28, “The Release of Egan”, in The Speaker, volume 7, page 95:

     Treason-felony, we repeat, is no joke; but then no more is penal servitude for nine years.

   • 1929, Crascredo, No Joke:

     Incompetence was no joke when ( other ) people got killed by incompetence. It was no joke when the children, growing old enough, really did go away to war; and not much of a joke when soldiers who were little more than children came out to join in that War.

2. (informal) Something that is unusually difficult or painful.
   • 1985, William Tsap En Wong, James Kim Min Wong, No Joke, James, page 434:

     In addition, Papa was no doubt influenced by his obsession that life is hard, is meant to be hard, and is no joke at all.

   • 2011, David P. Simmons, No End of Guilty Creatures, page 77:

     There was no joke about it whatsoever. That pregnancy was not an easy one.

   • 2021, Gordon Farlie, No One Told Me There Would Be Days Like This:

     It was no joke. And yes, I did survive, but I became very ill in November due to all the stress and had to take five days off.

   • 2023, Terry Donegan, Black Irish Luck, page 146:

     That race was no joke.

See also

• no mean feat

Further reading

• “no joke”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “be no joke”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “something is no joke”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “something is no joke” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.