A: Do you know that Karl is dating Marissa now?

    B: Yeah. I was just pulling Karl’s leg when I said Marissa wanted to go out with him. He believed me and called her. And now they really are going out!

    Note: To pull one’s leg is to “deceive someone in a humorous or playful way.” It’s said that thieves used to pull at people’s legs to trip them and then use the quarry’s disorientation as an opportunity to rob them. This was supposed to have taken place in Victorian London or anywhere else that the storyteller chooses to site the story. However, the phrase is American and it was coined in the 19th century.