Ah.  I think you&#x27;re drawing a reasonable distinction.<p>Though I certainly wouldn&#x27;t say everyone (or even most) need to <i>find it funny</i> to &quot;sound like a joke&quot; in the sense you meant.  Surely, there are bad jokes that sound like bad jokes.  I think it&#x27;s probably correct to say that most should &quot;immediately know it is a joke&quot;.<p>All of that said, whether that&#x27;s likely to be the case in this instance depends on a lot of context that wasn&#x27;t specified.