To hate it when men 'joke' like this.

[KindergartenKop]

Maybe it's not always men but I've never experienced a woman who has done this.

So today I took DS1 to a charity shop. He picked two books at 50p each. I gave Ds a pound coin. The man at the till took the books and said, 'That's four pounds please'. Ds looked worried and the man said 'Only joking, it's one pound'. We paid and left.
I've had people say this sort of thing to me so often and it always beffuddles me and makes me feel stupid. Am I the only person who attracts this form of idiocy? Aibu to be pissed off that this man worried my son? It's not fucking funny!

Reading this makes me wonder if people think The Office was a gag fest. These things aren't funny. They haven't been funny for years. At best the reciever thinks you're an unfunny, cliched arse as evidenced many a time on this thread, at worst you're upsetting people who don't understand the context of your crap jokes. No one who has made one of these jokey comments to me has ever even raised a genuine smile never mind a piss your pants guffaw. I don't think anyone on this thread has said these kind of comments from service providers make them laugh, though there's plenty that insist on making them by the looks of it.

I don't see how you can have good natured ribbing in a two sentence transaction with a random stranger when you're 4. Btw my 4 year old is getting good at taking the mick out of me and dh, however context and audience is everything so I'd hope he doesn't do it to his teacher!

An idiot because he thought it would be 'funny' to trick a young cashier into believing a tedious lie and then laugh at her.

That's why.

Is that what you understand by 'passing the time of day'?

Gotta Why don't you stop telling people how to parent

That would be mean,

"It's good to know there are lots of berks around from the off, I reckon."

winky this made me laugh out loud

^18/09/2016 08:13 blinkowl

DoNotBlameMeIVotedRemain that joke is totally different.

Your DS knows he's not his dad, there's no confusion at his expense.

Also the joke elevates his status to his dad, someone he presumably looks up to.

It's a nice, fun game, that he can participate in.

The "joke" the OP mentioned isn't nice at all. It's at the expense of the child, he's not "in on it", it's unfair and unkind.^

agree with every word of this post.

dontblame you are suggesting the OP is recommending we never joke with children, which makes her seem like a monster. Not right.

The joke in your example is completely different to the one in the OP, can't you see that?

Kids like jokes about the ridiculous. They don't like ones where there is no actual humour.

You know, I love this thread. I have been thinking lately about how much I dislike teasing. Not because I have no sense of humour, but because I just find it tiresome. I honestly just want the person to stop so we can get back to talking about interesting stuff.

Do you know what 'tricking' means, Navy. Look it up if in doubt. Getting someone to believe something that's not true is a prime example.

It doesn't matter, does it, whether I was affected or not? I could have been one of the v anxious people that (I assume you believe) exist. As it happens, I'd met plenty of idiots already. But why is it automatically my job in liife to familiarise myself with the behaviour of fools and train myself to ignore them? Can't they be trained not to be fools instead?

The reaction to the 'banter', as we've seen, can be modified (in most cases). What remains is the twattish intention.

Yes,

The joke "Quick as a flash teacher replies 'Are you her dad?'" works as a joke, and the child laughs, because it's the teacher that comes across as silly. Not the child. And the teacher is obviously wrong in the joke assumption.

In the OP's case, even as a mother, I'd not be sure if the man was simply wrong or joking. I might be inclined to reply with "we don't want the item, we were only joking" and leave. But, more likely, I'd just explain to DS (probably in front of the man) that some people make silly unfunny jokes, and we just ignore them.

Jeepers,

What a tedious, nausebox existence some folk enjoy....

What a tedious, nausebox existence some folk enjoy....

I agree.
Only such people are likely to attempt stupid unfunny jokes.

Exactly, he may have been 'simply wrong' and corrected himself....

Thinking they had come off the 2 pound shelf not from the 50p basket or something similar

Either way, it's possibly not fear inducing, nastiness from some unhappy man wanting to ruin the day of a 4 year old.

The problem on this thread is that some posters can't seem to grasp the idea of scale; they seem to be assuming that we can categorise all problems or misdemeanours according simply to their basic magnitude. So death and disease= big problem whereas unnecessary joke= small issue.

In fact, what is often the case is that we have a significant societal issue on a very small scale. Like here.

The issue is the way some men (yes, it is largely men and I will defend that stance), especially older men, are used to being powerful. They try to exert their power in the most mundane situations, like being the 'funny one' who teases people smaller than himself. This is a tiny indicator of a very deeply ingrained phenomenon.

Seriously, have some of you not noticed the way that men often laugh so much more at each other's jokes than at those from women? They have been brought up to expect their jokes to be well received. We are doing no one any favours by humouring the rubbish/unpleasant jokes.

No fear Lweji

Wouldn't even creep into my repertoire

Navy

I'd have more laughs in my front room.

Oh my god Navy yes, tge joke WAS on the cashier! ! Why are you not getting this?

BTW why the need for the uptight jibe? Because I'm disagreeing with you? Starting to understand why you're so keen to defend the sort of humour that puts people down...

My poor fiancé is understanding, kind and considerate so he really doesn't give a fuck that I'm 'sensitive'. You people really are just being purely nasty now. You care so much about these jokes you want to descend into personal insults?

The Op is about an unfunny joke with a 4 year old.

I have defended the non joke joker....

I don't think he's the evil monster, desperately unhappy, wanting to undermine and prey on the young shopper, whilst masquerading in his charity shop guise, that he has almost been made out to be.

That's it really

Plot twist: the cashier had special needs and took the charity shop job to improve their social skills

I don't think he's the evil monster, desperately unhappy, wanting to undermine and prey on the young shopper, whilst masquerading in his charity shop guise, that he has almost been made out to be.

I don't think anyone does.

Full time

That wouldn't be unusual at all

I exaggerated slightly, could you tell?

But some quite mean things have been said about him or 'idiots' like him.

Sad really

Yeah, cos that's what everyone said about him - evil monster and all.

OR people agreed that the joke was, at best, unfunny, and, at worst, a bit upsetting for some four year olds.

Do you know what I love the most about MN? It's that if anyone dares to be upset or worry or even just a teeny bit uncomfortable about something, you always, ALWAYS get a mob that comes along and berates the OP (and anyone who agrees with OP) for daring to feel this way, and accusing them of special snowflake-ism and then joining in some rough and ready banter with the other tough-nuts along the lines of "Ooh aren't this lot a barrel of laughs. " Nauseating.