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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

kidding n.

the act of teasing, joking; trickery.

1889		H. Smart Long Odds II 234: ‘Such a shameless bit of ‘kidding’ would have ensured my being hooted off the course at Stockbridge or Croydon’.
1905		Duke Tritton’s Letter n.p.: Sometimes I wonder why she married me, and when I ask her, she just smiles and says, ‘It must of been your good looks.’ (Which is kidding as you know I am no oil painting.).
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Fifth Wheel’ in Strictly Business (1915) 67: Just wanted to have some fun kiddin’, I guess.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 28: Can’t you take a little kidding?
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 50: Never mind incitin’ my clerks to kid with drivers [...] give the calls out and can the kiddin’ business.
1938		Dos Passos USA 6: In the kidding stories of uncles and the lies the kids told at school.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 143: When a national picture magazine publicized the marriage, he couldn’t stand the kidding.
1974		D. Mamet Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1994) 56: All kidding aside ... lookit, I’m a fucking professional, huh?
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 17: Ed, all kidding aside.

In phrases

kidding on the square (also kidding on the level)

(US) teasing with underlying serious intent.

1913–14		Van Loan ‘For the Pictures’ in Taking the Count 340: ‘Quit your kidding!’ ‘But I might be kidding on the square.’.
2002		(con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 394: The threat is only half in jest — what convicts call ‘kidding on the square’.
2006		J. Ridley What Fire Cannot Burn 63: Soledad was kidding on the square. A little jealous, never mind her jokes.