joke vs perform

joke

verb
  • To do or say something for amusement rather than seriously. 

  • To dupe in a friendly manner for amusement; to mess with, play with. 

noun
  • An amusing story. 

  • The root cause or main issue, especially an unexpected one 

  • A laughably worthless thing or person; a sham. 

  • Something that is far easier or far less challenging than expected. 

  • Something said or done for amusement, not in seriousness. 

perform

verb
  • To do (something) in front of an audience, such as acting or music, often in order to entertain. 

  • To fulfill contractually agreed-to terms. 

  • To exhibit an expected pattern of behavior; to function; to work. 

  • To act in accordance with (a contract); to fulfill one’s terms of (a contract). 

  • To do (something); to execute. 

  • To behave theatrically so as to give the impression of (a quality, character trait, etc.); to feign. 

  • To behave in accordance with, and thereby in turn shape, (a social notion or role). 

  • To behave in ways that carry meaning in social contexts. 

How often have the words joke and perform occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )