The real question facing industrialised countries is how to create a legal environment that counts cyberaggression not as a kind of practical joke, but a grave breach of the legal order, akin to terrorism, international organised crime, or aggression against another state.

ECONOMIST: Cyberwarfare

As with so much that Mr Banks says, it is not clear whether this was meant as a joke.

ECONOMIST: Sport: Hearts of oak | The

It left me suspended in a bad joke in which a living man inexplicably becomes two pints of dust and everyone acts as if this were not a joke at all but, rather, the most reasonable thing in the world.

NEWYORKER: Dead Man Laughing

They thanked you for coming, for hearing them out, and for not treating their story as a national joke.

NEWYORKER: The State of Sarah Palin

Mr Chambers, and his many high-profile supporters, always said the tweet was meant as a joke and should not have been taken seriously.

BBC: Prosecutors clarify offensive online posts law