M. Smith commence toujours ses cours en faisant une blague.

[corgwin24]

English Translation

Mr. Smith always starts his lessons by making a joke.

Making a joke usually means mocking something, trivializing a subject that is actually serious. People tend to find it offensive. Maybe M. Smith is mocking physics (or whatever he teaches). There are some subjects that it could probably work well!

I did find in Larousse: faire une blague à quelqu’un = to play a joke on somebody (© Larousse 2014).

I did a learn a bit from delving into this. If it is supposed to be “telling a joke“, maybe raconter would be a better verb? As always, I’m not sensitive so feel free to disagree or correct me. I want the right information out there.

[yottapolyglot]

@corgwin24

If it is supposed to be “telling a joke“,

I think this is indeed the intended meaning here.

@corgwin24

Making a joke usually means mocking something, trivializing a subject that is actually serious. People tend to find it offensive.

“Faire une blague (des blagues)” is commonly used in French without this idea of mocking a subject (or a person).

@corgwin24

maybe raconter would be a better verb?

“Raconter” can definitely be used.

To me the main difference would be:

Raconter => funny stories => words only

Faire => funny situations => actions rather than words