Am I a laughing stock?

I have a friend who constantly refers to her family as her clan, literally all the time.

Its not "we are off to Tenerife" she will say "the clan is off to Tenerife"

Why are people so bothered? I'd go harder with it now I know it annoyed people 😂

Ignore the po faced boring twats. They sound like the school bullies desperate for everyone to conform to their own unimaginative little lives.

It shows you have a sense of humour and having a fun joke at your own expense, not taking the piss out of other people, which is what they are doing.

My house exterior is a bright pink and I couldn’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks of it as I love it. 😉

I love it! I guess I must be cringe and wanky too...

I think, like all jokes, it can get old very quickly.

Even in journalism, when they aren't actually trying to be funny, they deliberately look for different words and phrases to avoid saying the same word again and again throughout the article. Suppose they were writing about Beyonce, they would initially use her name, but would then later refer to her as 'the Single Ladies singer', 'the superstar' etc. for a bit of variety.

Dave Gorman had a (as always) wonderful game on one of his shows where the guests were tasked to come up with alternatives for a word. I remember they had one about cheese, where they had 'udder fudge' and 'onion's best pal'!

I think the fact that you do actually live in a house that is taller than average - as opposed to a bungalow - might have blurred the fact that you were deliberately being jokey and it might have come across in a humblebrag kind of way.

I remember on an episode of Tenable, where the question was something like 'Name the ten airports closest to Warwick Castle'. The round may well have been designed deliberately (presumably by a question writer and not by host Warwick Davis himself) as a foil for an initial joke; but Warwick clarified at the start that it was referring to the ancient fortified tourist attraction in the Midlands and not to his own house, which he said was often known as 'Warwick Castle' to his friends. WD is a Hollywood star and must obviously be a very rich person, and thus probably does live in a massive, grand house; so the 'joke' was rather awkward and didn't land very well at all.

I always refer to my East or West wing etc when guests come to my semi & I see them upstairs with their luggage. I think formalising it on invitations etc, as others have said, has given Hyacinth Bucket vibes.

Honestly, if someone said this to me I wouldn’t even bat an eyelid. People are way too judgemental and think everything is ‘cringe’ nowadays

It sounds like you've overdone a fairly unfunny joke to the point of irritation.

I also agree

The “joke” has become tired and old

It's a bit Hyacinth Bucket (RIP Patricia 😢) but if they don't like it they don't have to accept your invitations and hospitality!

Yes its cringe & wanky. Why did they let you call it that for so long 😂

That’s what i mean about so many strong opinions on this non-issue.

IRL, they wouldn’t bat an eyelid, or give it a second thought. They certainly wouldn’t be taking the piss out of X Towers behind @CovidHeadache’s back.

But, on an anonymous forum, loads of people decide that it’s cringey, and wanky.
Such bullshit.

Yeah, faintly amusing at first but making it a thing every time you mention your house is a bit....weird

People don't have a sense of humour anymore do they? We call our house something along the same lines. It's a joke.

My WiFi name is "CastleLestrange"

But I would never refer to my house as Castle Lestrange in normal conversation 😂

Your sister is right, it's wanky and I would laugh at you for it. Especially if you really have put it on invites and refer to "the towers" it stops being a joke and people start to think your trying to make it something it's not.

Fine for Halloween,
but for everyday use I would go with 'Chateau de Jackson'

😂😂😂 Maybe this is more tiresome if you have to live with it constantly, but I really chuckled at it. Your DH is clearly joking though and I think people would have to be very po-faced not to laugh.

Agree. Would have found it funny and cute at first but after a while it comes across as quite cringe and a lil obnoxious.

I don’t think it’s that people didn’t realise it was a joke - I mean, obviously it’s a joke. It’s the sort of joke that wears thin with constant repetition though. As @ItWasOnAStarrrryNightsaid - the cringe factor comes from making it into ‘a thing’.

Whenever anyone adopts any sort of catch phrase, it gives people ammunition to laugh at them.
You must have had teachers who were known for always saying a particular thing they thought was witty/clever, over and over, and everyone said it behind their back impersonating them? This is obviously what's going on here. I'd say any charm the expression may have had for others has worn off from over use.
Some people like your sister are now actively irritated/embarrassed for you if others are laughing. If you don't mind that, carry on. If you do, stop.

I think it depends how often you refer to your home as 'surname towers'

If it is occasional, then they are being a bit mean spirited, but if it is often, yeah a bit cringeworthy and not terribly original.

But you shouldn't care what they think, however, the fact it has upset you OP, indicates you should probably drop it.

Just stop it now.

He sounds great! 😂

Is it nicer/larger than friends & family?

I know a woman who does this - who I always thought had ripped it off Mumsnet, ‘Mumsnet Towers’ - not very original. She’s nice enough but does like to feel a bit superior I think. Her home is nicer than almost everyone else’s without being overly grand so it doesn’t land too well.

It is a bit cringe, but so what? My attempts to coax DH out of similar have fallen on deaf ears. Our house has a name instead of a number (which is a bit wanky, but we didn't name it iykwim). When organising meet-ups with friends, DH usually asks them to arrange it with me, using various combinations of "Vinvertebrate, the Home Secretary, right honorable member for Mandalay". He's forrin so I think people are more forgiving, but I still had a word (which he completely ignored!)

Even the bloody cat doesn't escape! He requests cat food for "His Lordship Baron Tiddles of Mandalay" and I wish the supermarket floor would swallow me up.