The Latin word “jocus” is the origin of the word “joke,” and it’s also the root of this adjective that means “playful or humorous.” In the storytelling tradition, a “jocose lie” is an untrue story that is meant to amuse the audience more than it’s intended to mislead. Irony and tall tales are forms of jocose lies that are understood between the storyteller and the audience to be humorous falsehoods. In a more casual sense, teasing and sarcasm could be considered jocose lying in conversation.