The best way to tear apart the "I was only joking!" defence is to check if the thing said was, in fact, a joke.
Problem with jokes is, it may be funny to one person but offensive to another. It is how the other person or even someone who overhears interprets what is said.
THere is a word in school, misconstrued, where a statement can be taken a number of ways, I could have a conversation about a strategy game with a child in a school. If I say "If I hit you hard enough you don't recover, then keep hitting you" then I stand a better chance of winning.
Taken out of context could suggest I want to physically hit a child, and not in the case of a computer game, attack your base for example.
Of course with jokes, they are well known so you can explain the situation to both parties. If a statement is being used in jest, then you may have to explain what you meant.
