bad joke

plural bad jokes

1. idiomaticA situation that is badly planned, or illogical.

   Mayor Smith's new traffic rules were a bad joke.

   5 more examples

   Disarmament must be total, or it was merely "a bad joke".

   1938, Robert William Seton-Watson, Britain and the Dictators: A Survey of Post-war British Policy, page 172

   But it is amusing to note that whenever the tables were turned on him he would mutter "Bad joke. Very bad joke".

   1940, Kenelm Foss, Here Lies Richard Brinsley Sheridan, page 267

   "Maybe it was just a bad joke. " "A bad joke!" shrieked David, and in that cry I could detect all the ancient terrors of Israel.

   1986, Claire Martin, The Legacy, page 25

   It is this bad joke which, almost one century later, was still to be found in the government's campaign of 'We are Europe' from 1994.

   2002, Mikael af Malmborg, Bo Stråth, The Meaning of Europe, page 272

   This might be a bad joke for you and to the people able to fly back to Miami but this is not a joke at all to me.

   2002, Cesar Guerra, Hijacked to Havana!, page 28