To wonder why some people think they’re hilarious?

[CrowdofHats]

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?

Having a bad day
Problems at home
Relationship breakdown
Customer before swore at them
Heard the same joke 6 million times before and is sick of it

Could be anything. I'm not fake laughing to appease a man who is saying the same thing I've heard multiple times a day for a decade

Good girl is the one that infuriates me but I can't say anything about it so no, I don't say anything at all in response

@spikeandbuffy24 well yes.....I had 20 years of stupid unfunny comments from customers (male and female) that I heard a million times over and over.
It was just easier to make a reasonably whitty comment back while thinking "what a twat" in my head.

Yeah let's blame the staff member..

Anyone who works in customer service must first master the art of the fake laugh 🤣

@beautifultrama not "blaming" the staff member. I was a retail staff member for 20 years so had 20 years of stupid comments and "jokes". As much as I frequently disliked customers I didn't ever silently blank them though.

When I worked in a pub there was a guy who would say every single time "I won't keep you talking when you're busy. But give me a call when you've nothing on" Every single time. We probably encouraged him to think he was funny tbf, as whenever he came up one girl would say it in his accent, she was a great mimic, and we'd already be laughing.

because that's what customer service is - engaging with the customer even if they aren't displaying oscar wilde levels of wit! If staff only responded to people saying something interesting they might not speak all shift.

99% of exchanges I had when I worked customer service jobs were about the weather/prices of the items we sold, none of which were particularly world-shattering or fascinating - but I answered every single time. It would have been incredibly arrogant of me to only respond to the customers whom I thought were worth my time and ignore anyone else.

His comments might very well have been a bit annoying but they weren't rude, aggressive or misogynistic in anyway. Whereas it is rude for anyone to ignore someone when they speak to you, and even more so if you are literally being paid to engage with customers.
She didn't have to roll on the floor laughing but if she'd acknowledged it the first time he might not have repeated it another 3.

Sometimes a quick exchange at the shop is the only conversation a person will have all day - what harm does it to to fake smile at someone whose only crime is being a bit socially awkward?

It's completely different to the 'smile it might never happen' and 'women drivers!' examples mentioned.

Yeah agree @easylikeasundaymorn

Totally agree (although as I’m now middle aged it seems to always be ‘hilarious’ slightly older men making really crappy jokes). I agree with politeness but it’s so tedious that I can’t be bothered to engage.

I’ve really found my tolerance for this kind of ‘humour’ is diminishing as I get older.

YANBU. Much rather someone tried - even if he failed - to be funny, than be miserable and moaning .

Doh that should be YABU ..

Definitely. My husband's uncle does this. It's incredibly tedious. But it's definitely because he lacks social skills. So also it's a bit sad.

It's always men isn't it.

Yeah it's the assistant's fault! 🙄🙈

I worked in retail for a while and i only experienced it from men...middle aged. I am a happy cheery person but gosh... the misogyny and disrespect some men are towards women whilst out...their partners / wives ..its amazing what you hear in a shop. A guy was at checkout with his wife/ partner...buying clothes for trip to france i heard...i missed some conversation but his OH was quite meek...he ended obvious rude comments with "...bloody women" 😠.
So when i served him i said "Au revoir
Visage de merde". He smiled and said thankyou 🤣 💩☺️

I work in retail. I get this joke over and over again and many others (if it won't scan, it must be free, yeah?) but I have a knack of laughing at the jokes as if I've never heard them before. It makes people's day.

No, it's not funny. But sometimes it's people's sole personal interaction of the day and who am I to tell them that they are shit? Fake smile, pretend you never heard it before, send them on their way.

Of course, if someone tries it on me OUTSIDE work, I have perfected the Paddington Hard Stare. Pretend-laughing at work is enough, I'm not doing it in my own time.

@00BonneMaman00 as I have said several times on this thread already - I was a sales assistant for 20 years so had 20 years of customers (male and female) saying silly jokes like this one. Everyday.... several times. Over and over. It sucked. I hated many many customers.
But I never was just silent. That's just odd.

You should have reversed over Neville, @PerkyMintDeer. Multiple times. Any of your colleagues who witnessed it would have told the police they didn’t notice a thing.

Who cares

People occasionally say things like that to me in my job. You just have a bit of a mush with them back
'it'd be nice wouldn't it 😂'

There's really no reason to get het up about this

Power play, or a socially awkward man?

Some people who joke like this just have learning difficulties and don’t understand social norms. They’re just trying to seem friendly and fit in but it’s not something they know how to do. Some people are also so lonely they don’t talk to anyone all week apart from those they interact with when doing daily chores like going to the supermarket.

Retail wasn't so bad but I worked in a cinema selling tickets - back when it was done with cash at the door and no register!
The amount of times a day I got the 'Two child tickets lease' 'we're only 12' (big cheesy grin) and such idiotic comments when I was trying to just get them inside as fast as possible while adding it up in my head and counting out their change. Ugh. I just gave a vague smile and told them the adult price.

Maybe just trying to make a human connection? Surely that's a good thing? Unless we just want to interact with machines?

I guess that's the direction we're heading in, where we all shop online or put everything through the self service, and people go about their days never talking to another human. Personally I find that a really sad thought.

Generally people are just trying to make a connection. If you can't connect with people then maybe stick to working with machines.

I work as a receptionist, and the standard question before taking the clients payment is "would you like to book your next appointment?"
A client like the OP has described would use the same line every time - "no I'm not coming here again, the service is terrible!" followed by booming laugh at his own joke, looking around and waiting for people to laugh.
Once he caught me on a bad day, we had the above exchange so I did my fake customer service laugh and said "6 weeks? 8 weeks?" and he repeated himself so I closed my laptop and started to gather my things - he had a later appointment than usual and was the last of the day.
He told me he was only joking (more loud performative laughing) and I said well too late now sorry you'll have to call tomorrow 😂 unfortunately he didn't get the hint and did the same line the next time but it made me feel better that day!