AIBU to be utterly gobsmacked by this?

[PurplePidjin]

Client in office talking to boss. I was boiling the kettle anyway so do the usual tea or coffee routine.

"Do you take milk?"

"Yes, I like it white like my women"

Seriously, what the actual fuck?!

It was a sort of bugsy malone parody scene with a pair of children dressed as adults, behaving in a v sophisticated manner. White boy, black girl. Quote as follows:
Young Boy with Coffee: Excuse me, I happened to be passing, and I thought you might like some coffee.
Little Girl: Oh, that's very nice of you, thank you.
[takes coffee]
Little Girl: Oh, won't you sit down?
Young Boy with Coffee: Cream?
Little Girl: No, thank you, I take it black, like my men.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/quotes

i think in an office with a stranger it's a really inappropriate comment...

i have to admit though that i did laugh when one of the women from book club told me she liked her tea black and weak like her men (we're both white and married to black men), but there is a history/context there.

It's a joke and a twist on a very well known line from a film...YABU.

As a woman I wouldn't be offended. As a white person I wouldn't be offended. Neither should you.

Skrumie that sounds like when my Mum first meeting DP. He takes his black no sugar, cue Mum saying "Just like you then" and Dad and I cringing in the corner. It immediately passed into family legend

There see - it's funny.

In defence of Airplane and its sometimes enormously politically incorrect jokes... this was the 70's. (We won't mention the paedophile stuff )

You should have said "I like MY coffee like I like my bosses- ground up and in the freezer."

Yep, someone I know well putting their foot in their mouth = funny

Someone I just met doing it on purpose? Hmm, not so much

Yabu - just a reverse of an old joke as pp have mentioned, there's no need to take offence at everything

Eddie Izzard did it better though...

'I like my coffee as I like my women... in a plastic cup.'

The thing about Airplane though is that it was of it's time. DP wasbeing spat on in the school corridor for his colour and teachers turned a blind eye. Doesn't make it right, and society has since moved on in it's attitude. Or so I thought

My first thought was that it is a corruption of the Airplane line. He has probably been using it for years.

Between friends as a joke, not particularly hilarious, but I'd let it go.

From a client who's a stranger, in a business setting, YANBU to be gobsmacked.

As for Airplane, there are several things that make that funny. 1. It's set more than 30 years ago. 2. The entire movie is full of ridiculously crazy lines, the whole movie is tongue in cheek. 3. It was said by a 12 year old girl, which underlines the obvious inappropriateness of the comment.

The setting and level of unfamiliarity all show this to be an inappropriate remark for someone to say in a workplace.

I love Airplane! But YABU to be offended by the 'joke' in the context you've just heard it. It's the sort of thing where you have to know your audience...

Airplane is great. Along with Blazing Saddles, they are up there in the "Would Never be Made Today" category of movie. But they are movies, not real life.

Har! I say the same -to friends - when asked how I like my coffee - strong and black, like my men :) It's a joke. Altho' it may be out of context/inappropriate in an office, it's not BAD. I think YABU a little.

I think there are two elements to this that make it unsettling.

Firstly, its in a working environment. I would honestly say any reference to ethnicity in the workplace is really, really unwise. There is so much potential for making people feel uncomfortable, even if unintentionally.

The other aspect is that I am assuming the chap who said this was white (OP you don't specify) and IMO the joke sounds a lot worse when its a person talking about finding the same race attractive, whereas it is somehow less so if they are talking about another race. So a white woman making a joke about liking black guys is not offensive but it would be very odd for the same woman to make a joke about liking white men. This may not make sense but its the whole "I like my own kind" element to that which is worrying.

F* a duck I meant YANBU...

Haha, I love that movie.

Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

yes chaos it is

i would have replied with " i like my coffee like i like my men, hot,large and black..."

I agree with AndiMac - context is everything in humour. In Airplane, the line is funny; in real life, in a work setting between two relative strangers, it isn't.

Agreeing that the fact it's originally a film quotation doesn't make any difference - it's a gruesomely inappropriate thing to say in a professional situation, and suggests that kind of 'this is my hilarious Between Men professional banter' schtick that would make you want to beat someone's head in with a mallet. Can the guy trot this out all the time? Has no one ever suggested that it might be a little tired as hilarious morning tea banter goes? OP, YANBU, obviously.

Hackmum, I think that sums it up, thank you. Humour on the screen is often funny because of the shock value. You know the person is saying it because they're a comedian/comic actor. In RL it kind of just makes the person sound like a bit of a knob. The timing's not quite there and the audience isn't expecting a "joke"

Interesting to get lots of different opinions though, thank you!