Jokes are supposed to be funny – and not just to the person telling them. For most people, not getting a laugh means you realize not to tell a joke again.
If it doesn’t get a laugh, defending the joke is probably not the way to go.
OP is married to a man who she says loves to joke around. She says he’s funny.
I’ve been married to my 2nd Husband “Mike” for 4 years now. He’s a jokester and loves to crack jokes all the time.
But, the jokes he’s making to her brother about his child being adopted are unwelcome. He’s been told they’re unwelcome, and yet he persists.
He especially like to joke with my brother “Ethan” and his wife. Ethan used to be okay with it til he started complaining about Mike taking it too far with his jokes.
Some context about Ethan. He and his wife couldn’t have kids so they adopted a boy “Joey” 2 years ago. Mike has been making silly, light hearted jokes that involving Joey’s bio parents as a way to mess with Ethan and his wife.
I already talked to Mike and I tell you that he’s 100% means no harm and he was just trying to get them to react.
Recently, at a family dinner, he made another one. It devolved into an argument.
So fast forward to NYE, my parents hosted a big celebratory dinner and Ethan and his wife came. While we were eating dinner, Mike decided to tell a knock-knock joke to Ethan.
He said “Knock knock…”
Ethan laughed and said “Who’s there?”.
Mike replied “Joey’s bio parents” then he bursted out laughing.
Silence took over and Ethan’s facial expressions changed. His wife called Mike an “idiot” to which Mike replied with “Hey…Relax it was just a joke”.
An argument ensued and dinner was paused.
The argument ended with her parents asking them to leave.
My parents suddenly told Mike to leave which I thought was too harsh. I tried to speak to them and get them to calm down but mom insisted that Mike leave.
We left and Mike was complaining the whole time about how they overreacted.
Now no one is taking OP’s side, and she doesn’t get it.
I called mom later and she told me Mike was out of line with his hurtful jokes about this touchy topic and told me I was wrong for defending him and saying he was just joking.
She said he ruined New Years for the family but I told her it was her and dad who ruined the celebration for escalating the situation and kicking him out.
I told her he could talk to them but again they were the ones who ruined the celebration. She called me delusional for this statement and hung up.
We haven’t talked to them for days. I tried contacting Ethan but no response.
Will Reddit set her straight? Let’s find out!
The top commenter says OP’s husband is not a nice person.
This person says that it’s only a joke if it’s funny.
They say the fact that he was asked to stop and hasn’t says everything she needs to know.
Everyone is sure there’s no excuse for that behavior.
It’s embarrassing that this woman even thinks she married a good person.
But I suppose that happens more often than we’d like to think.