japing

The japing in George's eyes had turned to brooding gloom.

His japing dissipated some of Covenant's acid mood.

"No, seriously," Tarma replied to her japing.

The form that the Host's japing takes here is to turn to "Chaucer", the pilgrim-narrator, and to demand his tale.

"Belay that infernal japing of yours!

Sooner than admit themselves in the wrong, people would turn themselves into an expensive 'circus' for the gaping and the sneers, the japing and the jeers of half the town!

An example appears in Oliver St. John Gogarty's impious poem The Ballad of Japing Jesus: "If anyone thinks that I amn't divine, / He gets no free drinks when I'm making the wine".