joke vs ridicule

joke

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

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

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. 

ridicule

verb
  • to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of 

noun
  • An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock. 

  • The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness. 

  • derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour 

  • A small woman's handbag; a reticule. 

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