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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask if my joke to new work colleague would have offended you?

591 replies

Abbeymum · 25/10/2025 07:58

We are quite a small team and had a new staff member join this week. It’s a very friendly and jokey culture so we are always light heartedly ribbing each other.

Anyway - new colleague was eating a salad with two boiled eggs. We were chatting and she says that’s a usual weekday lunch for her. I replied that I bet she has stocked up on the air freshener for when she’s home.

Blank face…sense of humour failure on her part?

OP posts:
saffy2 · 25/10/2025 18:38

Yes I’d think you were a pretty horrible person. I wouldn’t have laughed and I wouldn’t really interact with you again.

phoenixrosehere · 25/10/2025 18:36

Caleb64 · 25/10/2025 17:55

I hate fart jokes, if anyone talks about farts or faeces it instantly puts me off my food. Certainly wouldn’t have been offended but it does seem a bit like a dig and a bit early in the colleague relationship to make a fart joke. It’s probably her way of letting you know she didn’t appreciate it, I suppose it’s quite a mature way of doing it if you think about it, she didn’t complain or call you out but showed you that you aren’t to make a joke like that to her again.

My bet is she probably didn’t know what OP was on about or if she did was processing and unsure how to respond.

Someone joking about air fresheners to me and talking about my lunch with the context of me being new would make me think they were saying my lunch is smelly and hinting I shouldn’t bring it in again. It wouldn’t occur to me that they were just making a joke since it wouldn’t be on my radar to make a joke about people’s food.

RampantIvy · 25/10/2025 18:31

Wontbackdown · 25/10/2025 18:30

Watch out, the thought police are here!

No, the socially aware are here.

Wontbackdown · 25/10/2025 18:31

🙃

Wontbackdown · 25/10/2025 18:30

Watch out, the thought police are here!

Jeschara · 25/10/2025 18:27

Well you did not get the support you expected did you OP. 91% of the posters think you are wrong.
Time to re-think your behaviour.

Bellyblueboy · 25/10/2025 18:25

It’s just not witty. It’s like that obvious joke sad old Uncle Reg makes at the family gathering and everyone smiles and tries to hide their irritation.

I think you need to up your game - you’re not as funny as you think.

Wontbackdown · 25/10/2025 18:22

AnsiPansy · 25/10/2025 13:38

Oh crikey, nobody seems to have a sense of humour anymore. I'm in my 50's and would have laughed but maybe I'm childish.

Ohh you!
Straight to the Manager's office for a Mumsnetty dressing down. 😂

Evaka · 25/10/2025 18:10

Not funny, not offensive. I'd say her heart was sinking as she realised how basic the office culture is.

Lilyowl · 25/10/2025 18:08

I just don't think that joke is very funny. Not particularly offensive, just not funny. And also a bit overfamiliar to be "ribbing" her when you've only known her for a week. Feel like this sort of thing is done when you've had time to judge someone's character and build a relationship?

GrrrrrrrBrrrrrrr · 25/10/2025 18:08

I wouldn’t be offended but I would think it was inappropriate and not funny.

RampantIvy · 25/10/2025 18:06

FirstdatesFred · 25/10/2025 16:49

I would've smiled politely but inwardly thought you're a bit of a dick

That's probably what I would have done - and thought "Oh dear, we have a David Brent here"

Falseknock · 25/10/2025 18:06

RampantIvy · 25/10/2025 15:34

We are grown ups capable of reading the room. Given that 91% of posters think that toilet humour is puerile and best left at primary school, I can only conclude that you don't seem to be able to undersand that.

Show quote history

I don't take what Mumsnet says that seriously. I know the real world is different.

Edit - Most offices has no etiquette.

KitKateKat · 25/10/2025 17:57

Don't comment on what other people are eating, it is just rude.

Caleb64 · 25/10/2025 17:55

I hate fart jokes, if anyone talks about farts or faeces it instantly puts me off my food. Certainly wouldn’t have been offended but it does seem a bit like a dig and a bit early in the colleague relationship to make a fart joke. It’s probably her way of letting you know she didn’t appreciate it, I suppose it’s quite a mature way of doing it if you think about it, she didn’t complain or call you out but showed you that you aren’t to make a joke like that to her again.

CurlewKate · 25/10/2025 17:49

Surely asking if she had plenty of prunes at home would at least have made sense…..

Skybluepinky · 25/10/2025 17:32

She doesn’t know you, and you were extremely rude, assuming you are a man who is past retirement age who finds his own jokes funny!

tuvamoodyson · 25/10/2025 17:24

I wouldn’t have been offended as such, I just don’t find toilet humour in any way funny, and I definitely wouldn’t have said that to sometime barely know!

Growlybear83 · 25/10/2025 17:05

I don’t think it was the least bit offensive. It wasn’t a particularly funny joke but I would probably have laughed. I certainly wouldn’t have sat stoney faced like your colleague.

FirstdatesFred · 25/10/2025 16:49

I would've smiled politely but inwardly thought you're a bit of a dick

GAJLY · 25/10/2025 16:46

I wouldn't have laughed either. It's a crude fart joke. Hate jokes that revolve around poo, wee and parts. It's just childish. She probably won't bring eggs again now!

Doorbellsandknockers · 25/10/2025 16:45

Its not particularly funny unless you're aged 6.

RampantIvy · 25/10/2025 16:40

Seekanddestroy · 25/10/2025 16:06

Great joke, I’d of laughed my head off

I guess it figures - from someone who says "of " instead of " have"

BauhausOfEliott · 25/10/2025 16:36

I don’t think I’d have made the connection between eggs and farting, really. If it was cabbage soup or a three-bean chilli or something, I’d have known what you meant, but a hard-boiled egg and salad?! I’d have just thought you were being weird.

I also think you have to know someone pretty well to joke about them farting. She’s a new colleague and you don’t have any established rapport with her. I have longstanding colleagues who I can joke about all sorts of things with, but I wouldn’t replicate that with a colleague I don’t know very well.

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