To wonder why some people think they’re hilarious?

Definitely. My husband's uncle does this. It's incredibly tedious. But it's definitely because he lacks social skills. So also it's a bit sad.

Doh that should be YABU ..

YANBU. Much rather someone tried - even if he failed - to be funny, than be miserable and moaning .

I’ve really found my tolerance for this kind of ‘humour’ is diminishing as I get older.

Totally agree (although as I’m now middle aged it seems to always be ‘hilarious’ slightly older men making really crappy jokes). I agree with politeness but it’s so tedious that I can’t be bothered to engage.

Yeah agree @easylikeasundaymorn

because that's what customer service is - engaging with the customer even if they aren't displaying oscar wilde levels of wit! If staff only responded to people saying something interesting they might not speak all shift.

99% of exchanges I had when I worked customer service jobs were about the weather/prices of the items we sold, none of which were particularly world-shattering or fascinating - but I answered every single time. It would have been incredibly arrogant of me to only respond to the customers whom I thought were worth my time and ignore anyone else.

His comments might very well have been a bit annoying but they weren't rude, aggressive or misogynistic in anyway. Whereas it is rude for anyone to ignore someone when they speak to you, and even more so if you are literally being paid to engage with customers.
She didn't have to roll on the floor laughing but if she'd acknowledged it the first time he might not have repeated it another 3.

Sometimes a quick exchange at the shop is the only conversation a person will have all day - what harm does it to to fake smile at someone whose only crime is being a bit socially awkward?

It's completely different to the 'smile it might never happen' and 'women drivers!' examples mentioned.

When I worked in a pub there was a guy who would say every single time "I won't keep you talking when you're busy. But give me a call when you've nothing on" Every single time. We probably encouraged him to think he was funny tbf, as whenever he came up one girl would say it in his accent, she was a great mimic, and we'd already be laughing.

@beautifultrama not "blaming" the staff member. I was a retail staff member for 20 years so had 20 years of stupid comments and "jokes". As much as I frequently disliked customers I didn't ever silently blank them though.

Anyone who works in customer service must first master the art of the fake laugh 🤣

Yeah let's blame the staff member..

@spikeandbuffy24 well yes.....I had 20 years of stupid unfunny comments from customers (male and female) that I heard a million times over and over.
It was just easier to make a reasonably whitty comment back while thinking "what a twat" in my head.

Having a bad day
Problems at home
Relationship breakdown
Customer before swore at them
Heard the same joke 6 million times before and is sick of it

Could be anything. I'm not fake laughing to appease a man who is saying the same thing I've heard multiple times a day for a decade

Good girl is the one that infuriates me but I can't say anything about it so no, I don't say anything at all in response

@Gingernaut in my retail working days we were told to talk to the customers - even if the customer was generally saying a load of old crap we had heard a million times before.

I believe the exchange in the OP to be power play, as someone above already said. Why should the worker acknowledge the tedious attention-seeking behaviour? I really admire retail workers because they have to put up with endless shit like this.

Well if the cashier had acknowledged his (bad) attempt at being funny he maybe wouldn't have kept trying?

As someone above said - you hear the same joke over and over in certain situations. But you don't blame the 100th person to say it for not being the first.

Me: Do you need a bag?
Him: No, I've got one but I've left her at home

'Building an new patio is she? would be a good reply.

Then they tell you to, "Cheer up/Smile Love" if you don't laugh. Twats.

One "hilarious" middle aged randomer did that in the street to me, once when I was in my early 20s. I was dressed head to toe in black, carrying a little packet of tissues, having just attended a childhood friend's very elderly grandad's wake to be of support to her. I knew him well but wasn't dreadfully upset as it was "his time" and had been quite a lovely celebration of life.

Aware that the twat randomer would possibly bump into my distraught friend or her immediate family in the next few minutes, I decided to make sure he'd never tell a young woman to "SMILE love, it might never happen" again.

I fake wept, asked him to repeat himself, looked wide eyed in horror at him, gestured at my funeral outfit, waved the order of service at him and said, "how could you SAY that? I've literally JUST buried my FATHER. It HAS happened! And now I've got my little sister and brother to raise on my own on a student's wage. I have no idea how we'll cope.
I don't know what to do. So what's your advice now? Just smile?!"

He instantly started to apologise, knew he'd been an utter twat, started to try and calm me down.

I just sadly shook my head, looked him up and down and said very scathingly, "My dad was a hundred times the man you'll ever be." and walked past him clutching poor old Grandpa Joe's order of service close to my chest fake sobbing all the way down the street.

Some other bloke had witnessed the whole thing and also shook his head at the random "smile love" man and said "you absolute fucking TOOL" at him and a woman walking her dog tutted at him and said "that poor girl. I hope you feel proud of yourself" then ran after me to make sure I was ok.

Actually...between this and Neville maybe I need therapy. Or the poor men need protection from Perky the angry nutjob.

I'm baffled why the assistant didn't say anything

Because a reply would only encourage him?

She needed to bite her tongue to keep her job?

Because she's so beaten down by twats like him it's just background noise?

Because she'd interrupt her train of thought?

That's not the harmless if tedious kind of joke the OP is discussing though, that's just straight up misogyny.

@Sethera as someone who worked in retail for 20 years - it's definitely not always the blokes. Women are just as bad !

To be honest if the assistant had said something like "Can't do free I'm afraid ....but hopefully some money off" and then when the total came up said "There you go - you've saved £4.75. Score" he wouldn't have felt the need to make the terrible joke 4 times.
I'm baffled why the assistant didn't say anything.

If they stopped to think for a millisecond, these blokes (it's always blokes) would realise that shop staff have heard their jokes a thousand times before.

Same, and of ‘hilarious’ blokes talking crap when I worked behind a bar too. It’s just a tiny step away from ‘cheer up love it might never happen’.

He wouldn’t have made these ‘jokes’ had another bloke been serving him, because he wouldn’t have viewed him as someone he needed to engage with in this way, it’s tedious.

Well done. I'm so glad you didn't let him get away with it.
I once had to drive a minibus with mostly young male passengers. As we set off one of them made the usual comment to the others about women drivers.
I just stared at him and said "right".
For the next few minutes I used the brakes unnecessarily hard, not in a dangerous way but enough to shock them and make the journey uncomfortable. Each time I gave him a look. He knew.