tongue-in-cheek

tongue-in-cheek

Jocular or humorous, though seeming or appearing to be serious. The president's tongue-in-cheek speech about the "War on Couch Potatoes" has been extremely popular on the Internet this week.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

tongue-in-cheek

Fig. insincere; joking. Ann made a tongue-in-cheek remark to John, and he got mad because he thought she was serious. The play seemed very serious at first, but then everyone saw that it was tongue-in-cheek, and they began laughing.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • (with) tongue in cheek
  • cheek
  • tongue in cheek
  • tongue in cheek, with
  • tic
  • with (one's) tongue in (one's) cheek
  • Q-sign
  • the Q-sign
  • whoop
References in periodicals archive
Dr Banks said: 'It has got an element of tongue-in-cheek, but it is not patronising about women.'
``I feel the need to get to grips with the general public once again'', says the comic, typically tongue-in-cheek.
HIGH POINT, N.C.-Lamp designers are taking a lighthearted approach to this market with some tongue-in-cheek introductions.
As a lifelong environmental and animal rights activist, I am compelled to point out that Bob Allan's letter of compassion for the starfish on your great tongue-in-cheek green travel cover (Advice & Dissent, November/December 2002) is misdirected.
His penetrating, yet tongue-in-cheek insights into the hidden meanings of our favorite television shows made him a popular fixture at the home of Classic TV.
government's approval for its project, but the dream of exploring space without working for the feds goes back long before that, from serious efforts to raise capital to quixotic projects like the Association of Autonomous Astronauts a tongue-in-cheek effort in the '90s to create "a worldwide network of community-based groups dedicated to building their own spaceships" by the year 2000.
Farrelly has developed a successful formula--continuity of characters, an interesting supporting cast and a tongue-in-cheek approach.
The County Tyrone chanteuse never missed an opportunity for some tongue-in-cheek plugging of her new album.
The works are high-minded, if often tongue-in-cheek. In The Simpsons and Philosophy, authors Gerald J.
With Last Wedding, he has made his most complex work to date, one that mixes humour, pain and down-and-dirty sex with tongue-in-cheek lectures on Canadian literature, architecture and, believe it or not, a minimalist car chase, all of which serve to further his explorations of the ins and outs of coupledom.
A Tongue-in-Cheek Production of WalstonOne Communications, has been a consultant specializing in internet publishing since 1995.
From a Reuters on-line report datelined Toronto on a tongue-in-cheek psychiatric study of the Winnie the Pooh characters that was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal: "Winnie himself could benefit from a low-dose stimulant to help him overcome attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as obsessive-compulsive tendencies that include repetitive counting and an insatiable lust for honey.
Noah, in his delicious tongue-in-cheek posting on December 4, even succeeds in connecting the Saudi millionaire to Katharine Hepburn's endorsement of Harris Wofford's candidacy for the U.S.
I realize this was tongue-in-cheek, but you could have added poles, plywood, and lightning rods.
One of the earliest specimens of science fiction in American literature, this tale describes a voyage to the moon, done with tongue-in-cheek verisimilitude.