Page 7 | To ask if my joke to new work colleague would have offended you?

Abbeymum · 2025-10-25T06:58:01+00:00

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?

Falseknock · 25/10/2025 13:50

"What's that smell. You cooking eggs love?"

ConnieHeart · 25/10/2025 13:48

Falseknock · 25/10/2025 13:39

It's amazing how sensitive people are about farts. How many of you fart in front of your husband?
I farted in bed this morning 🤣

Missing the point entirely...

Falseknock · 25/10/2025 13:47

DickDewey · 25/10/2025 13:41

It’s not about farts. It’s the fact it’s not a funny joke.

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What's not funny about it? I wonder if her husband or partner says anything about her eggy farts💨 when she gets home.

BigBoots67 · 25/10/2025 13:44

Na I think it’s was a crap joke.
And a new colleague needs to settle and you need to get to know them

(I also hate people commenting on my food, they’re not eating it 😆)

Waitfortheguinness · 25/10/2025 13:43

Thepeopleversuswork · 25/10/2025 13:01

@Waitfortheguinness

thinking you may have problem with work based interactions…..

I have no problem with work based interactions thanks. I am a senior manager at a company and have worked for 30 years and have many friends who I have met through work.

Not enjoying puerile behaviour and being able to spot an office bully at 50 paces isn’t a me problem.

Similar (have been) here. But I would not equate one badly timed comment about eggy lunches in any way equates to potential bullying…..especially if you already know your team members well enough.
I'm also acutely aware how having someone completely devoid of any sense of humour, or intelligence to come back with their own if they take offence (rather than just stare like a rabbit in the headlights) and how that person can just suck the life out of the rest of the team.

Tiijj · 25/10/2025 13:43

I fart in the office when I need to. If a colleague farts and is embarrassed I don't react it say anything to spare them blushes.

Falseknock · 25/10/2025 13:42

dizzydizzydizzy · 25/10/2025 13:40

I would have found it funny but on reading some other PPs comments, I can certainly see why many would be offended.

If you knew the posters personally would you still think the same? I don't know why they would be offended. They haven't given any reasons.

RampantIvy · 25/10/2025 13:41

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.

Yes, you are.
I have a sense of humour. I laugh a lot, but only at things that are funny.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 25/10/2025 13:41

I agree with most, it’s just not funny.

DickDewey · 25/10/2025 13:41

Falseknock · 25/10/2025 13:39

It's amazing how sensitive people are about farts. How many of you fart in front of your husband?
I farted in bed this morning 🤣

It’s not about farts. It’s the fact it’s not a funny joke.

dizzydizzydizzy · 25/10/2025 13:40

I would have found it funny but on reading some other PPs comments, I can certainly see why many would be offended.

Falseknock · 25/10/2025 13:39

It's amazing how sensitive people are about farts. How many of you fart in front of your husband?
I farted in bed this morning 🤣

Needtosoundoffandbreathe · 25/10/2025 13:38

Abbeymum · 25/10/2025 08:02

It’s a good job you don’t work with us, then!

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The thing is, this isn't banter when you barely know someone. You're crossing the line to bullying, particularly as you're focussing on the new colleague not finding your puerile comment hilarious. You've asked would your joke have offended posters here, but you're only interested in validation of how hilarious you are. You're not.

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.

Cornflakegirl7 · 25/10/2025 13:35

ConnieHeart · 25/10/2025 11:40

There is a lot wrong with making a crass joke about someone's bodily functions, someone you don't know very, presumably in front of others, who the new colleague also wouldn't know very well, if at all, yet she has to work with them. I'd be very embarrassed if I was the butt of the 'joke' and would nake a mental note to steer clear of you, during lunch time at least

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This is a good point too. Do we know the colleague's background (doubtful) at this stage? Chrons/IBS etc, maybe she's got good reason to not want jokes made about such body parts/functions.

Cornflakegirl7 · 25/10/2025 13:35

ConnieHeart · 25/10/2025 11:40

There is a lot wrong with making a crass joke about someone's bodily functions, someone you don't know very, presumably in front of others, who the new colleague also wouldn't know very well, if at all, yet she has to work with them. I'd be very embarrassed if I was the butt of the 'joke' and would nake a mental note to steer clear of you, during lunch time at least

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This is a good point too. Do we know the colleague's background (doubtful) at this stage? Chrons/IBS etc, maybe she's got good reason to not want jokes made about such body parts/functions.

diddl · 25/10/2025 13:35

The joke itself isn’t the point.

Yes I know I've already posted that somewhere.

ConnieHeart · 25/10/2025 13:34

Locutus2000 · 25/10/2025 13:26

This is thankfully not how digestion works.

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They do make your farts smell worse because they're high in sulphur

LillyPJ · 25/10/2025 13:33

bondix · 25/10/2025 13:32

Some people just don’t find fart humour hunny - on the other hand I have no choice but to find some hilarity around it as I’ve two tweenage kids and anything remotely toilet humour is funny.
It’s maybe more that you don’t know her well enough to insinuate that she ‘phluffs’ at all.
I wouldn’t worry, keep on joking away and maybe her face will crack, if her ass doesn’t first😂

There's a bit of difference between tweenage kids at home and grown women at work!

Hons123 · 25/10/2025 13:33

Maybe jokes are best reserved for friends, not work colleagues? Maybe it was not the joke itself, but familiarity? It usually irks people, even if a joke is funny.

bondix · 25/10/2025 13:32

Some people just don’t find fart humour hunny - on the other hand I have no choice but to find some hilarity around it as I’ve two tweenage kids and anything remotely toilet humour is funny.
It’s maybe more that you don’t know her well enough to insinuate that she ‘phluffs’ at all.
I wouldn’t worry, keep on joking away and maybe her face will crack, if her ass doesn’t first😂

BadLad · 25/10/2025 13:30

"stocked up on air fresheners" is probably the shittest way of telling this joke anyway.

Rafting2022 · 25/10/2025 13:30

The OP hasn’t said they were necessarily eating at their desk - could be a completely separate kitchen/canteen area where people are at liberty to eat whatever they like for lunch.

Xmasbaby11 · 25/10/2025 13:29

Not offended, but it's the wrong time and place I think. Toilet humour has to be between people who know each other and their sense of humour well. FWIW, eggs do give me bad wind but I wouldn't want to joke about it with a new colleague!

SaratogaFilly · 25/10/2025 13:29

xxxwd · 25/10/2025 07:59

I would have cringed and definitely not laughed. Personally, I don’t find fart jokes funny because I’m not a 12 year old boy.

I wouldn’t have even realised it was a fart joke - it would have gone right over my head!