joke vs play fast and loose

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. 

play fast and loose

verb
  • To act in a tricky, inconstant way, saying one thing and doing another. 

  • To be recklessly inaccurate, inappropriate, or otherwise ignoring guidelines and conventions. 

  • To ignore proper behavior or social conventions, especially when it suits one's purpose. 

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