3 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: When is a joke not a joke?
When an offensive joke isn't laughed at but genuinely offends someone, the joker has 2 possible ways to respond.
1. Say they were only joking and apologize, then promise to try not to make similar jokes around that person/people in the future.
2. Say they were only joking and the other person is too sensitive or has no sense of humor.
If they do the first, they were joking, but they had a lapse in judgment over what makes a suitable joke. If they do the second one, on the other hand, they are placing the blame on the other person or people rather than taking responsibility. They were almost certainly not actually joking and were in fact being an asshole.
Comment by Canuck_Voyageur at 13/01/2025 at 18:25 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This.
Lots of guys use the line, "I was just being sarcastic"
There are a bunch of words for saying the opposite of what you mean. Two of these are "sarcastic" and "facetious"
Facetious is saying the opposite of what you mean with the intent of being funny/amusing. Lots of people use sarcastic when they mean this.
Sarcastic is saying the opposite of what you mean in order to hurt, wound, express your contempt.
I work hard to avoid being sarcastic. I am facetious a lot, and occasionally people are wouonded. I apologise immediately on discover of my offense to them. If circumstances set it uip that I didn't find it out until after, I will apologise again in front of hte group, reviewing he situtation, and saying that I was out of line, and would work on not making that same mistake, but finding new exciting mistakes to make.