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English Expression: Poke fun at
In the West, we poke fun at things all the time.
We like to laugh at ourselves and others.
We enjoy making things seem ridiculous and stupid.
Poking fun at people or teasing and making fun of them is most often done for fun with no harm intended.
Politicians are a favourite target for comedians and cartoonists.
Just look at the drawing of an American three-dollar bill below.
The artist is poking fun at President Trump.
Whether you agree with the drawing or not, it is easy to see that President Trump is the butt of a joke here.
Then we have the first picture at the beginning of this post from Europe, not so subtly poking fun at cars and drivers.
Look at all the bicycles that are parked in only one parking spot for a car.
Whoever came up with the idea for this bicycle parking stand is saying that cars are a useless and stupid waste of space.
Sometimes poking fun at someone can go too far, become cruel or mean, especially if the intended target takes the teasing to heart.
Most times, though, the target should try to be strong and let the criticism roll off them like water off a duck’s back.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 74.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.