I'd thought at the time he was making a joke.
He tried to answer, make a joke or something, but nothing came out.
He's making a joke about how long the light took to get here.
The king told the boy to make a joke now.
Another way out would be to change the subject by making a joke.
They made little jokes and told her what to look for when she got up to the sun.
He could make good jokes of his own almost to the end.
On the way home she would not talk about what had happened, but just made jokes.
Let alone is the kind of person who would try to make jokes before the sun even came up.
Making a joke, because of course he knew she'd meant work for her mother.