To wonder why some people think they’re hilarious?

CrowdofHats · 2024-08-17T18:52:07+00:00

In a shop earlier, queuing behind a middle aged bloke. He was being served and at the start handed over his loyalty card and said “That means I get my shopping for free”. The Assistant raised a polite smile, and carried on serving him. Got to the end and she swiped the loyalty card and he said loudly, to the queue, “does that mean I’m getting them for free then?”. Assistant didn’t acknowledge and told him the price and he said “Not free then, you’ve ruined my day there!”. He then paid and said “free next time!” as he was leaving. I don’t know why it got on my nerves so much. Just the tedious, crap, repetitive joke, and the general air of “I’m hilarious me”. Or am I being a total misery?

WickieRoy · 17/08/2024 19:56

The cashier was a bit rude not to acknowledge him, even though she hears that joke a few times an hour (been there!). It's just one of those things to get through a transaction in good humour isn't it? Like when someone hands over a cleaned plate and says "oh I hated it". Dad jokes!

Not particularly funny or creative but should be taken in the spirit intended.

EmeraldRoulette · 17/08/2024 20:00

Making a crap non joke four times
incredibly annoying

Clementine22 · 17/08/2024 20:06

Maybe he’s just socially awkward and eases his anxiety with humour.

People do weird stuff all the time.

PerkyMintDeer · 17/08/2024 20:21

YANBU.

I just find it odd how I inevitably feel more embarrassed and awkward than them. The confidence lol.

I put up with it for 10 years from an older local man who used to make a "hilarious" OTT point of waving me in and out of my own bloody parking space at work, comedy style as if I was landing a plane, complete with "lady driver" jokes to passersby, "oops you'll be taking the doors off again like last time!", "Ooooooohhhhh here she comes - get the T-Cut out boys!!!", "Bloody lethal this one, bloody female drivers, she'd reverse over me for the insurance!!!", "She's always crashing this one, applying her lipstick in the mirror, not watching the road!", "Don't be mixing up the brake with the accelerator again, Perky! Six inch heels, she drives in this one, this big!...bloody lethal!"

And I took it and took it, until he got in my blind spot with his stupid pantomime act and I genuinely nearly did hit him and I ended up bursting out of the car and shouting, "For FUCKS sake, Neville, I've been driving for 20 years and putting up with you mocking me every single week for the past 10. Yes, I CAN fucking drive! No, I've never had an accident. You can fuck off now and take your chauvinist, sexist pantomime somewhere else because I am done with it. LEAVE ME ALONE."

I was mortified. But he apologised and never did it again.

I strongly believe we shouldn't be forced to give these overgrown attention seeking toddlers the time of day. I never smile for them. It gives me great satisfaction.

Loubelle70 · 17/08/2024 20:21

I think im funny 😁... But i don't overkill.. I know someone who thinks hes highly hilarious...hes very very monotone and boring..his jokes arent even jokes...i can't stand him tbh...i aboud him if i can. I also had fella whos dad thought he was hilarious and commanded the floor...i never laughed at one of his jokes... different humour oc...his was quite juvenile i like dark dry humour. Could be different styles of humour but it us cringey at times

CautionaryTaleGirl · 17/08/2024 20:28

As a teenage girl working in retail in the 90s I got so sick of middle aged men thinking they were hilarious.

Just reading the OP has given me flashbacks.

Marine30 · 17/08/2024 20:31

PerkyMintDeer · 17/08/2024 20:21

YANBU.

I just find it odd how I inevitably feel more embarrassed and awkward than them. The confidence lol.

I put up with it for 10 years from an older local man who used to make a "hilarious" OTT point of waving me in and out of my own bloody parking space at work, comedy style as if I was landing a plane, complete with "lady driver" jokes to passersby, "oops you'll be taking the doors off again like last time!", "Ooooooohhhhh here she comes - get the T-Cut out boys!!!", "Bloody lethal this one, bloody female drivers, she'd reverse over me for the insurance!!!", "She's always crashing this one, applying her lipstick in the mirror, not watching the road!", "Don't be mixing up the brake with the accelerator again, Perky! Six inch heels, she drives in this one, this big!...bloody lethal!"

And I took it and took it, until he got in my blind spot with his stupid pantomime act and I genuinely nearly did hit him and I ended up bursting out of the car and shouting, "For FUCKS sake, Neville, I've been driving for 20 years and putting up with you mocking me every single week for the past 10. Yes, I CAN fucking drive! No, I've never had an accident. You can fuck off now and take your chauvinist, sexist pantomime somewhere else because I am done with it. LEAVE ME ALONE."

I was mortified. But he apologised and never did it again.

I strongly believe we shouldn't be forced to give these overgrown attention seeking toddlers the time of day. I never smile for them. It gives me great satisfaction.

Go you - Neville the arse finally being put in his place 😂😂

LemonySnickets · 17/08/2024 20:42

Most annoying 'joke':

Me: Do you need a bag?
Him: No, I've got one but I've left her at home.

Same bloke. Every time. Stopped asking after a few weeks of that.

Loubelle70 · 17/08/2024 20:43

CautionaryTaleGirl · 17/08/2024 20:28

As a teenage girl working in retail in the 90s I got so sick of middle aged men thinking they were hilarious.

Just reading the OP has given me flashbacks.

Weirdly, i agree, its ALWAYS middle aged or older men from my experience. I think they try to act younger by the jokes but it shows their age

ChaToilLeam · 17/08/2024 20:45

A wee joke is fine. But a joke that goes on fucking forever and isn’t funny or that just shows the maker to be a fud is so annoying.

MyCatHasStaff · 17/08/2024 20:46

Always middle aged men. It's a form of power play. Twats.

RockyRogue1001 · 17/08/2024 20:53

I just want this thread to know I AM genuinely hilarious *

But I know what you all mean about middle aged misogyny dressed up as humour

*man walks into a bar
Asks for a double entendre
So I gave him one

Arf

User20056 · 17/08/2024 20:59

LemonySnickets · 17/08/2024 20:42

Most annoying 'joke':

Me: Do you need a bag?
Him: No, I've got one but I've left her at home.

Same bloke. Every time. Stopped asking after a few weeks of that.

Nah, that one's somewhat funny😂

Maybe not so much if you've heard it 100 times but still

FictionalCharacter · 17/08/2024 21:03

PerkyMintDeer · 17/08/2024 20:21

YANBU.

I just find it odd how I inevitably feel more embarrassed and awkward than them. The confidence lol.

I put up with it for 10 years from an older local man who used to make a "hilarious" OTT point of waving me in and out of my own bloody parking space at work, comedy style as if I was landing a plane, complete with "lady driver" jokes to passersby, "oops you'll be taking the doors off again like last time!", "Ooooooohhhhh here she comes - get the T-Cut out boys!!!", "Bloody lethal this one, bloody female drivers, she'd reverse over me for the insurance!!!", "She's always crashing this one, applying her lipstick in the mirror, not watching the road!", "Don't be mixing up the brake with the accelerator again, Perky! Six inch heels, she drives in this one, this big!...bloody lethal!"

And I took it and took it, until he got in my blind spot with his stupid pantomime act and I genuinely nearly did hit him and I ended up bursting out of the car and shouting, "For FUCKS sake, Neville, I've been driving for 20 years and putting up with you mocking me every single week for the past 10. Yes, I CAN fucking drive! No, I've never had an accident. You can fuck off now and take your chauvinist, sexist pantomime somewhere else because I am done with it. LEAVE ME ALONE."

I was mortified. But he apologised and never did it again.

I strongly believe we shouldn't be forced to give these overgrown attention seeking toddlers the time of day. I never smile for them. It gives me great satisfaction.

Well done. I'm so glad you didn't let him get away with it.
I once had to drive a minibus with mostly young male passengers. As we set off one of them made the usual comment to the others about women drivers.
I just stared at him and said "right".
For the next few minutes I used the brakes unnecessarily hard, not in a dangerous way but enough to shock them and make the journey uncomfortable. Each time I gave him a look. He knew.

Changingplace · 17/08/2024 21:05

CautionaryTaleGirl · 17/08/2024 20:28

As a teenage girl working in retail in the 90s I got so sick of middle aged men thinking they were hilarious.

Just reading the OP has given me flashbacks.

Same, and of ‘hilarious’ blokes talking crap when I worked behind a bar too. It’s just a tiny step away from ‘cheer up love it might never happen’.

He wouldn’t have made these ‘jokes’ had another bloke been serving him, because he wouldn’t have viewed him as someone he needed to engage with in this way, it’s tedious.

Sethera · 17/08/2024 21:05

If they stopped to think for a millisecond, these blokes (it's always blokes) would realise that shop staff have heard their jokes a thousand times before.

Needmorelego · 17/08/2024 21:10

To be honest if the assistant had said something like "Can't do free I'm afraid ....but hopefully some money off" and then when the total came up said "There you go - you've saved £4.75. Score" he wouldn't have felt the need to make the terrible joke 4 times.
I'm baffled why the assistant didn't say anything.

Needmorelego · 17/08/2024 21:11

@Sethera as someone who worked in retail for 20 years - it's definitely not always the blokes. Women are just as bad !

WickieRoy · 17/08/2024 21:12

PerkyMintDeer · 17/08/2024 20:21

YANBU.

I just find it odd how I inevitably feel more embarrassed and awkward than them. The confidence lol.

I put up with it for 10 years from an older local man who used to make a "hilarious" OTT point of waving me in and out of my own bloody parking space at work, comedy style as if I was landing a plane, complete with "lady driver" jokes to passersby, "oops you'll be taking the doors off again like last time!", "Ooooooohhhhh here she comes - get the T-Cut out boys!!!", "Bloody lethal this one, bloody female drivers, she'd reverse over me for the insurance!!!", "She's always crashing this one, applying her lipstick in the mirror, not watching the road!", "Don't be mixing up the brake with the accelerator again, Perky! Six inch heels, she drives in this one, this big!...bloody lethal!"

And I took it and took it, until he got in my blind spot with his stupid pantomime act and I genuinely nearly did hit him and I ended up bursting out of the car and shouting, "For FUCKS sake, Neville, I've been driving for 20 years and putting up with you mocking me every single week for the past 10. Yes, I CAN fucking drive! No, I've never had an accident. You can fuck off now and take your chauvinist, sexist pantomime somewhere else because I am done with it. LEAVE ME ALONE."

I was mortified. But he apologised and never did it again.

I strongly believe we shouldn't be forced to give these overgrown attention seeking toddlers the time of day. I never smile for them. It gives me great satisfaction.

That's not the harmless if tedious kind of joke the OP is discussing though, that's just straight up misogyny.

Gingernaut · 17/08/2024 21:17

I'm baffled why the assistant didn't say anything

Because a reply would only encourage him?

She needed to bite her tongue to keep her job?

Because she's so beaten down by twats like him it's just background noise?

Because she'd interrupt her train of thought?

PerkyMintDeer · 17/08/2024 21:17

MyCatHasStaff · 17/08/2024 20:46

Always middle aged men. It's a form of power play. Twats.

Then they tell you to, "Cheer up/Smile Love" if you don't laugh. Twats.

One "hilarious" middle aged randomer did that in the street to me, once when I was in my early 20s. I was dressed head to toe in black, carrying a little packet of tissues, having just attended a childhood friend's very elderly grandad's wake to be of support to her. I knew him well but wasn't dreadfully upset as it was "his time" and had been quite a lovely celebration of life.

Aware that the twat randomer would possibly bump into my distraught friend or her immediate family in the next few minutes, I decided to make sure he'd never tell a young woman to "SMILE love, it might never happen" again.

I fake wept, asked him to repeat himself, looked wide eyed in horror at him, gestured at my funeral outfit, waved the order of service at him and said, "how could you SAY that? I've literally JUST buried my FATHER. It HAS happened! And now I've got my little sister and brother to raise on my own on a student's wage. I have no idea how we'll cope.
I don't know what to do. So what's your advice now? Just smile?!"

He instantly started to apologise, knew he'd been an utter twat, started to try and calm me down.

I just sadly shook my head, looked him up and down and said very scathingly, "My dad was a hundred times the man you'll ever be." and walked past him clutching poor old Grandpa Joe's order of service close to my chest fake sobbing all the way down the street.

Some other bloke had witnessed the whole thing and also shook his head at the random "smile love" man and said "you absolute fucking TOOL" at him and a woman walking her dog tutted at him and said "that poor girl. I hope you feel proud of yourself" then ran after me to make sure I was ok.

Actually...between this and Neville maybe I need therapy. Or the poor men need protection from Perky the angry nutjob.

JudgeJ · 17/08/2024 21:18

LemonySnickets · 17/08/2024 20:42

Most annoying 'joke':

Me: Do you need a bag?
Him: No, I've got one but I've left her at home.

Same bloke. Every time. Stopped asking after a few weeks of that.

Me: Do you need a bag?
Him: No, I've got one but I've left her at home

'Building an new patio is she? would be a good reply.

itsgettingweird · 17/08/2024 21:19

Well if the cashier had acknowledged his (bad) attempt at being funny he maybe wouldn't have kept trying?

As someone above said - you hear the same joke over and over in certain situations. But you don't blame the 100th person to say it for not being the first.

hildabaker · 17/08/2024 21:22

I believe the exchange in the OP to be power play, as someone above already said. Why should the worker acknowledge the tedious attention-seeking behaviour? I really admire retail workers because they have to put up with endless shit like this.

Needmorelego · 17/08/2024 21:31

@Gingernaut in my retail working days we were told to talk to the customers - even if the customer was generally saying a load of old crap we had heard a million times before.