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AIBU?

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Original poster

Am I a laughing stock?

814 replies

CovidHeadache · 31/10/2025 09:03

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. We host a lot of social events and I use the name in invites for example “birthday party, Jackson towers”, “Strictly finale party, Jackson towers” etc
In Christmas/birthday cards “love from A, L and all at Jackson towers”

All my friends and family know I call the house this and some call it this name too either in replies or just in general.

Anyway, last night I’d popped to my mums and my sister was there, we were talking about taking the kids to a Halloween event tonight and I said “why don’t you bring them back to the towers afterward and we can have a little party?”

My sister then said “I’m sorry but can we stop with this towers bullshit, it’s so cringy”. I said “It’s a joke! And you’ve never complained before!” My mum then said “not to your face maybe”. They both started laughing and my sister then said “no I’m sorry, someone needs to say something, people have been ripping the piss out of you for years for it, just give it a rest now”.

so to cut a long story short, turns out almost my entire family have been slagging me off for it for years and my sister hinted that my friends have too.

When I got home I rang my friend and asked her if the towers name annoys her and she said “no course not” so I asked if she knew if it annoyed anyone else to which she hesitated and then said “not annoy as such”. She wouldn’t elaborate further.

Now I’m pretty thick skinned and can mostly laugh it off if I’ve been a dick but this time I’m a bit upset, I keep trying to tell myself I’m not bothered but I can’t stop thinking about it. Have I been a laughing stock for years? If so AIBU to think someone might have mentioned it before now?

OP posts:
SemiRetiredLoveGoddeess · 31/10/2025 19:39

I like it and shows you have some sense of irony and fun

Unlike quite a lot of the posters who seem to live drab,dreary judgy lives.

Probably because they were born with a total sense of humour bypass.

Go for it. You only live once.

👍🌻😻

Xxx

Flyingintotheunknown · 31/10/2025 19:37

AliceMaforethought · 31/10/2025 19:34

I wasn't the one who wrote a novel psychoanalysing people's humour. If your comment was intended to be light hearted, that most certainly didn't come across.

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I will write what I like. You don’t own this thread. And op posted the thread, people have responded to give their opinions and insight. You however, are taking what I’ve said way too seriously and it’s up to me if I choose to avoid people who tell the same ‘joke’ over and over and over again for years down the line… some people DO find it boring and irritating after the first couple of times.

Arthur2shedsJackson · 31/10/2025 19:35

It is SO crass!

newbluesofa · 31/10/2025 19:34

It's a bit cringe but isn't that the point? I can't stand people who can't just have a laugh and have to take everything so seriously. How boring for people to be taking the mick out of it

AliceMaforethought · 31/10/2025 19:34

Flyingintotheunknown · 31/10/2025 19:32

Oh get a life! I’ve obviously annoyed you because you have taken my comment way too seriously 🤣 It’s so funny how those who have replied to that post are contradicting themselves.

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I wasn't the one who wrote a novel psychoanalysing people's humour. If your comment was intended to be light hearted, that most certainly didn't come across.

ChatOff · 31/10/2025 19:34

My ex-husband's mum always used to sign all their Christmas cards from "the surname gang". So if they were Jackson's it would be "Merry Christmas from the Jackson gang". She's about as gangster as a jelly. Always made me cringe

WeeGeeBored · 31/10/2025 19:33

People can be so mean. Where’s the harm in it?

Allaboutthecats · 31/10/2025 19:32

Wouldn't be surprised if there was some jealousy involved. They are probably a bit miffed about you having the fun party house.

Don't fret too much but maybe tone it down. Or go the other way and name it officially

Flyingintotheunknown · 31/10/2025 19:32

AliceMaforethought · 31/10/2025 19:23

Wow, you are taking this way too seriously! I actually think it's you who has the problem if other people's quirks annoy you to this extent.

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Oh get a life! I’ve obviously annoyed you because you have taken my comment way too seriously 🤣 It’s so funny how those who have replied to that post are contradicting themselves.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 31/10/2025 19:26

CrystalSingerFan · 31/10/2025 13:01

Or a keyring? I live in somewhere with a posh, historic bit and a 1980's estate for the rest of us. This keyring works for me...

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That’s what I used to call my (well at the time it was “our”) bedroom when the kids were very little but had gone into their own rooms 😂

Bobiverse · 31/10/2025 19:26

ThatCyanCat · 31/10/2025 19:23

Seriously?

If people really honestly think she calls her three storey townhouse Jackson Towers because she thinks it's an actual stately home, I think that's their failing.

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If this was just her sister? Then i’d agree with you that the sister is reading too much into it. But it’s not. It’s the sister, and mum and then mum hinted that other family members say the same. The it’s the friend and the friend diplomatically hinted that other friends think it too.

When everyone else thinks you’re behaving really oddly and going over the top with something… it’s usually because you actually are. Since a large part of her social circle seems to think this about her, then I would believe that the OP’s behaviour is actually showing that she takes this seriously and is a bit navel gazey.

PigletIsWorried · 31/10/2025 19:25

It's evident that a lot of people on this thread think the single most important thing a person can do is make sure they have no personality at all, for fear that someone else might not find it to their taste.

ThatCyanCat · 31/10/2025 19:23

Bobiverse · 31/10/2025 19:16

Because when you go that far, you give off the impression that it’s not a joke. Her house is “The Towers” and it isn’t a joke… which is super weird for a pretty normal house.

When you take it too far, you look like you mean it. So everyone thinks it’s weird and a bit up herself.

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Seriously?

If people really honestly think she calls her three storey townhouse Jackson Towers because she thinks it's an actual stately home, I think that's their failing.

AliceMaforethought · 31/10/2025 19:23

Flyingintotheunknown · 31/10/2025 16:35

My dad is very similar. Taking words I mis- said as a toddler and still saying them 40 years later. And he even went through a phase of telling people what I’d said as a toddler even when I was in my 20s!! But nobody was interested really. I mean who cares about what someone else’s toddler said decades before!

I do feel that people who do this sort of thing are looking for some sort of approval. It was funny and worked once and got people laughing so let’s do it again to try and make people laugh and be seen as likeable. I do feel that op is behaving in a similar way. The issue is that when done over and over and over again for years, it not only becomes not funny, it becomes extremely irritating and annoying.

I try to avoid people like this (although I can’t avoid my dad), especially in the op’s case because I feel it has some sort of childish element and that maybe they haven’t quite grown up or that they seek approval and attention from people and it’s too much like hard work for me to keep laughing at their jokes that after many years, are no longer funny.

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Wow, you are taking this way too seriously! I actually think it's you who has the problem if other people's quirks annoy you to this extent.

Jom222 · 31/10/2025 19:22

sorry but my eyes rolled at every mention of the surname towers, its cute a few times but allowing it to become A Thing is whacko

I was just thinking about a woman I met once decades ago who beamed with pride when she said 'we call our little farmstead here in the country 'Franks Folly', (or similar, the last name started with F so I guess she just went with it 😂)

I never cringed so hard in my life and thirty years on still cringe when I think of it. She was an utter twat and massive snob too...always bought the same car in the model and color so she wouldn't get confused in parking lots and lost her fucking mind one year when the model body style changed significantly 🙄🙄etcetc

Illegally18 · 31/10/2025 19:19

PoetryEmotion · 31/10/2025 18:44

Probably not.

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Thanks for clearing that up.

PigletIsWorried · 31/10/2025 19:18

PeonyBulb · 31/10/2025 19:17

Obviously yes you are a laughing stock and it’s very cringe

Did you not get any hints from them over the years ?

You sound like such a joyless arsehole.

Notsandwiches · 31/10/2025 19:18

For me it's a harmless form of shorthand for your home. Wouldn't fund it cringe or anything really. I'd take it with the humour you say it with.

Namechanged999999 · 31/10/2025 19:17

No you are not a laughing stock. Your sister is a nasty one. Wouldn’t invite her to your lovely events in future.

PeonyBulb · 31/10/2025 19:17

Obviously yes you are a laughing stock and it’s very cringe

Did you not get any hints from them over the years ?

Muffsies · 31/10/2025 19:16

It is just a joke and they are the ones being cringe (if 'they' even are talking behind your back - I think 'they' is just your sis). If you don't act like a dick socially, then you have nothing to worry about.

I'd stop calling your house Jackson Towers, and start calling it Chez Jackson. Fuck 'em.

Bobiverse · 31/10/2025 19:16

ThatCyanCat · 31/10/2025 19:13

But "too far" for what?

It harms nobody, it isn't a boast. It's a joke. Her nickname for her own house. So people think the joke is overdone, so what? I'd understand if she was constantly expecting a round of laughter and lots of reaction but it's just her jokey nickname for her home, she's not expecting everyone to react every time or do the same. Sounds like she hadn't even thought about it much any more. I really, truly don't understand what exactly it is that is apparently driving people so mad they can't take it any more. Too far for what? Enough of what?

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Because when you go that far, you give off the impression that it’s not a joke. Her house is “The Towers” and it isn’t a joke… which is super weird for a pretty normal house.

When you take it too far, you look like you mean it. So everyone thinks it’s weird and a bit up herself.

PigletIsWorried · 31/10/2025 19:15

I don't think this is that cringe but honestly even if your friends do think it's a bit cringe don't give that headspace. Lots of my friends have little quirks and oddities that I find faintly embarrassing but it doesn't mean I don't love, respect and admire them in the whole.

Your job isn't to be the world's least cringe person according to everyone else, it's to live your life happily and well to the best of your ability, and it sounds like you do that.

DuckbilledSplatterPuff · 31/10/2025 19:15

FrostAtMidnight · 31/10/2025 09:08

Honestly, I wouldn’t worry. You did it as a joke, some people got it and some people didn’t. That’s jokes for you. It reminds me of Nigella saying “mictro-wav-ee” and dimwits thinking she was trying to make it sound fancy rather than the exact opposite.

This.
It's just a joke.
Some people will find anything to pick on. Breeze through it.. its their problem.
Put it this way, your DM and Sis must be hard up for conversation.

as @Y0208680333367 style it out... and use it a bit less.

If it makes you feel any better DH has sometimes referred to our gaff as HQ, eg "I've left it back at HQ" but I noticed that was talking with his parents as his dad was very formal...and it was a joke. I've often heard people say things like that and thought nothing of it.

ThatCyanCat · 31/10/2025 19:13

Bobiverse · 31/10/2025 19:01

If so many people are commenting on it, and the friend has indicated that they are, then she must have just taken it too far. If shell made this a big part of her personality then it can see how it could be so grating. She puts it on invitations to her house, she says it verbally when inviting people to her house, she signs off Christmas and birthday cards with it, she has a plaque for it… I’d imagine it goes further. She probably answers the door with “welcome to the towers” when people come round and I’m sure there are social media posts of “Halloween in the towers tonight” etc.

When someone takes something that’s not all that funny and makes it a repeated comment which is a massive part of her communication with people… it is tiring. And people will talk about it.

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But "too far" for what?

It harms nobody, it isn't a boast. It's a joke. Her nickname for her own house. So people think the joke is overdone, so what? I'd understand if she was constantly expecting a round of laughter and lots of reaction but it's just her jokey nickname for her home, she's not expecting everyone to react every time or do the same. Sounds like she hadn't even thought about it much any more. I really, truly don't understand what exactly it is that is apparently driving people so mad they can't take it any more. Too far for what? Enough of what?

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