Am I a laughing stock?

My sons went to school with a girl who was absolutely desperate to make her chosen nickname stick. She had it on her leavers sweatshirt and , when they started 6th form college, she introduced herself over and over as this name. It was massively cringe. Ten years later its her Facebook name. None of her school friends ever used it. They laughed behind her back.

Oh dear. Did you buy it yourself? It's like people who buy plaques for their house that say things like "welcome to the mad house".

It is cringey. However, that doesn't make it ok for people to be mean.

Of course it’s not murder, what dramatics but we only have OP’s side of the story and don’t know how annoying she was really being about Jackson towers.

I don’t make the same joke over and over again! And you are contradicting yourself in your comment by sounding ‘miserable and judgey’ about what I’ve written 😂

Would you like all the words you said as a toddler and massive poos you’ve done because you were constipated as a 2 year old being dragged up in conversation with your friends and relatives and your parents friends when you’re in your teens and 20s?? No thought not!! Because that’s what my dad did! And yes it was downright cringe and ridiculous!

She already has the plaque

Have I been a laughing stock for years? If so AIBU to think someone might have mentioned it before now?

It seems like it started off as a joke but you just kept on and on with it. Events, messages, dropping it in conversations, a sign, etc so you were the only one prolonging this ‘joke’. You took it too far and maybe made it your identity so they didn’t have the heart to tell you it was wearing thin but this last time may have been the straw that broke the camels back. You have been going on about your Towers for years, people would have stopped finding it funny after the first handful of times.

I think it’s funny. Sounds like your family and friends need to get a sense of humour. I would call it that even more often and make an even bigger thing of it now 🤣 Get a nice big ‘Jackson Towers’ plaque made up for the front door even, get the house formally renamed too 🤣🤣🤣

There are so many bitchy people around that would rather choose to take things the wrong way and be mean about it when they could just as easily take something for the joke that it is. Sad.

It’s a joke that’s worn very, very thin….

And the reason OP started this thread is because she thought they did and doesn't understand why one of them didn't tell her sooner if it was so annoying. She said some of her friends use it too (and she only has her spiteful sister's word for it that they've all been "slagging" her off for it). So apparently, whilst they're all happy to avail themselves of her hospitality, they think it's OK to take the piss behind her back. What lovely people - not. And what has OP done to deserve such opprobrium? Oh yes, given her house a nick-name - shock, horror, probe, hold the front page! 🙄 Who's it hurting? Absolutely no-one. It's hardly first-degree murder, is it? Some people clearly live very gilded lives if this is all they have to be concerned about.

Oh, god. I had uni friends who did that. Those things should be banned.

If she did they'll be getting buggerall this year, now she knows the lie of the land, so to speak.

It's a bit pretentious tbh!

I think everyone knows it's a joke. It's just a joke that has gone on too long for everyone else and the fact the OP makes frequent references to it in normal conversation means it isn't as subtle as Jane's Kitchen. And that's where the joke has fallen down somewhat.

It's only the OP keeping the joke going.

It's not that people don't get it or that people don't have a sense of humour or that people think the OP thinks her house is bigger and better than everyone else's just that, the frequent refences in normal coversation suggest that the OP has made it part of her identity and, as someone else has said, it smacks a little bit of 'You don't have to be mad to work here, but it helps!' Which absolutely no one thinks is funny.

It's more David Brent than it is Hyacinth.

As a side issue -

I used to have a job that involved visiting people in their own homes in a very rural area..

One day i had to visit "The Penthouse". This was in an area where roads had no names. I had to stop a local and ask them and then I got directions.

The property was a 2 bed bungalow with the name in stuck-on letters on a piece of plywood by the front door. It couldn't be seen from the road, so I must have driven past it twice.

I found houses called "Thistledome" = This'll do me

Itythwbo = In twenty years this house will be ours Obviously a young couple with a mortgage)

And lots of first names of occupants "Paton" = Pat & Tony, etc etc

Do you also send out those round robin yearly family newsletters with your Christmas cards?

Since that happened, DP sometimes talks about "homay-mahday" food, and I will admit to looking at the "timmy-tahblay" to see when the next train is.

But only ever between ourselves!

In the OP's case, once or twice with the right might be OK in the OP's case, but making it the actual name that you use systematically for your house when talking to almost everybody does indeed feel a bit wanky. (Perhaps wanktastic, even. 😉)

But ok, you mean you are very self ironic and this is why you started calling the house this way. How people laughing about it behind your back is making you laughing stock - is this not what you really aimed at? to be funny

You sound lovely but in all kindness there is a touch of the Hyacinths about it. But do not give your sister the satisfaction of seeing she’s upset you. She’s been unnecessarily blunt, maybe a touch of the green eyed monster over your get together? Just say ‘round at ours ‘ in future!

Clearly Op’s mum, sister, extended family and some of her friends don’t share her sense of humour.

A three storey townhouse suggests you actually mean it seriously and trying to show off. People think you are Hyacinth Bucket.

I had to look that one up ,so here it is

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality

I have name for my house in my head which reminds me of how hard I fought to get away from my exh, and have this house of my own.

I don’t say it to anyone else though!

I’m not sure if that makes it weirder.

No one else would get why it meant that though, except in very specific circles (and those who would aren’t people I see in real life!)

OP literally started her first post with "I jokingly call my house “surname towers” so for example if my surname was Jackson, my house would be called Jackson Towers. I’ve called it this for years, it’s very very lighthearted as I’m sure everyone knows" so the fact you don't believe her is neither here nor there.
And so what if OP has turned her joke into a plaque? I have a friend who has a plaque in her kitchen saying "Jane's Kitchen" - it's well known in our circle that Jane loathes cooking and her DH does it all. We all know the plaque is a joke - but then we all share Jane's sense of humour.

The problem with the 'towers' thing is that it's so overdone, I've been hearing it for decades. Usually by people who repeat the same things they've heard, dozens of times, mistaking it for fresh wit. They look so proud of themselves too. Not cringey just boorish. Clarkson-core if you will.