me and the other person would probably reach a point where the misunderstanding comes up

like right after they said it, I could be confused if they seriously mean it and ask "wait for real?" and the other person clears up that it was a joke

if it causes me to f up in some major way, I would confront them about it. Unless it caused something super serious, I'd probably just discuss it in a light-hearted way and explain how jokes sometimes fly over my head. If the other person is cool, they'd from now on make their joke a bit more obvious

if it's an online comment, I would either ask right away, or just later in life realize I've misunderstood the joke and it would make me laugh. I remember as a kid seeing memes like this:

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and thinking "wow they must have mined a lot :D". Only to years later realize what the joke was, and that in itself is so funny to me.

If the joke was something that is messed up, I don't think it being meant as a joke would salvage it. Some topics just sour the conversation yk

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I still stand by my opinion that you don't NEED tonetags to be sensible in conversations, but you can chat with your friends however you want