When you’ve grown up with people, you gain a deep knowledge of them as well as (for most people) a deep bond that transcends everything.

That’s why siblings can seem very close and why, more often than not, siblings have instinctive and long-held ways of messing with one another.

But for most siblings at least, only love is meant by this.

So when the guy in this story realised he’d hurt his sister’s feelings he felt terrible, and was the first to apologize and try to rectify the misunderstanding.

Read on to find out why it just wasn’t as easy as that.

AITA for holding a “class clown” sign in my sister’s graduation photo?

I (a 21-year-old man), my parents, and my sister, let’s her Mary (27, female) went to her master’s convocation in June.

I was and still am really happy for her. We come from an immigrant family, so milestones like this are a big deal.

After the ceremony, like most families, we spent hours taking pictures, everywhere on campus, on all of our phones.

I’m not someone who usually takes photos, but that day I had 100 on my phone alone, which is basically my entire gallery for the month.

Let’s see how this happy day became a source of family drama.

There was also a school-provided photo booth with a photographer. After we posed for some normal family shots, the photographer asked if we wanted to use props.

On the table were hats, moustaches on sticks, and little signs with superlatives- one said “class clown.” Since we hadn’t taken any goofy photos yet, I thought it would be funny for one of them.

For context: Mary is the jokester of our family. She’s always cracking jokes, telling funny stories, or pulling pranks. Sure, it can be annoying or done at the wrong time but most of the time, but we love it.

If you had to pick five words to describe her, “funny” would be one. So to me, the sign felt fitting and obvious, and I definitely didn’t choose it out of spite.

But this didn’t seem obvious to Mary.

We took the photo, and afterward Mary asked what I was holding. When she saw “class clown,” she looked visibly annoyed and told me to pick a different one, so I put it back.

I don’t remember if I grabbed another prop or just left it, but we carried on, kept taking pictures, had dinner, and everything seemed fine.

Fast forward to last week (September): we were talking about the graduation, and she suddenly said I had done something “incredibly disrespectful.”

I was confused, but she brought up the sign. She said I was trying to ruin her day.

Uh-oh. Read on to find out why this had upset her so much.

I explained that in our family she really is the class clown, and it was meant lightheartedly. To me, “class clown” basically means funny, and honestly, if it was such a terrible label, would the university even provide it as a prop?

She said I was wrong, that the phrase has a negative connotation, that she doesn’t identify with it, and that because it wasn’t a “class” photo, I was “essentially calling her a clown.”

I told her I wouldn’t do it again, and didn’t intend to make her upset since it was her day of course. But even after I explained my reasoning, she stayed adamant it was disrespectful, which I found surprising.

I can understand if she misunderstood at first, but I didn’t expect her to double down after I clarified.

Let’s see why he thought she was overreacting.

With the way she was reacting, I told her maybe if she doesn’t like being seen as the jokester, that’s something she should reflect on, since she’s the one who leans into that role.

We have hundreds, maybe over a thousand, beautiful, picture-perfect photos from that day.

This was ONE goofy moment out of all of them, and I honestly feel like her judgment is unfair.

AITA?

Sure the misunderstanding might have upset Mary in the moment, but it’s clear that her brother meant no disrespect by it.

Since the whole idea of the prop photos is to be silly, it’s a shame that her brother being silly has been such a source of discontent.

It really begs the question, what is it about the words ‘class clown’ that is upsetting her so much?

Let’s see what folks on Reddit thought about this.

This person thought the only person who behaving unusually here was the sister.

While others explained what exactly ‘class clown’ means, and why it’s not the insult Mary thought it was.

Meanwhile, this Redditor thought that he’d done all he could in this situation.

He’s clearly tried to make it right, and is keen not to upset his sister or undermine her achievements.

So the way that she’s treating him is really unfair, and if she’s unwilling to even try to comprehend his apology, she’s the unreasonable one.

He’s done absolutely nothing wrong.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.