No disrespect intended sir. It was just a joke.

先生，绝无不敬之意。这不过是个玩笑而已。

《牛津词典》

I said again after a while of pause: "It was just a joke; you can copy as much as you wish."

过了一会儿我又说：“开开玩笑，想抄就抄吧，没关系的。”

youdao

Now I know that Mr. Ding didn't really want to make me leave, it was just a joke. But that change my life.

当然现在我知道来是只不过是吓唬我，并不是真的要我退学，但是确实改变了我的一生。

youdao

Except maybe it was just a joke.

NEWYORKER: I.D.

It was just a bad joke and he kind of, if the context means anything, I mean, look, this was a back-and-forth, trash talking brinksmanship for while, and then Sergio Garcia goes and does this and everything is sort of like, oh god, here we go again.

NPR: Price Too High For Being World's Top Military Force?

He's got no monetary value so maybe someone thought it was just a bit of a joke.

BBC: Stolen gorilla Werbert