I thought the word "joke" should be followed by the preposition "about". Can you explain why there isn't?

Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
"To joke about" and "to joke that" are both correct and have the same meaning. How we use them is different. We use "to joke about" to refer to someone laughing at a general topic +noun OR +gerund (ing): Ex: You shouldn't joke about cancer (noun). You shouldn't joke about being (gerund) poor. We use "to joke that" to introduce a specific joke +subject +verb. Ex: Jane jokes that her husband (subject) loves (verb) their puppy more than her.