Sometimes a harmless joke can land harder than you expect.

So, what would you do if you made a quick pun among friends and someone later told you it was inappropriate? Would you ditch the joke and never tell it again? Or would you defend it because you don’t see anything wrong with it?

In the following story, a university student finds himself in this scenario and is unsure whether to tell the joke again or not. Here’s what’s going on.

AITA for telling this joke?

I (19M) am a university student.

I was chatting with a group of friends, and one of my closest friends mentioned that next year they would be studying abroad.

I said: “Study abroad? I think the polite thing to say is ‘study a dame.'” This got a pretty good laugh from everyone, and the conversation continued normally.

When he said it, he didn’t think about it this way.

Later, my roommate (20M) confronted me, saying that he didn’t like how the joke used the word “broad” in an outdated sense, and that it could be construed as offensive to women.

I argued that since the word was outdated, it was clear that it was a joke, and that the joke’s punchline was that I misheard a word, not that I was being demeaning to women.

Either way, I’d like to think that I’m respectful to women.

I need to know whether it’s a good idea to tell this joke in the future, even if it’s only to people who already know me well.

AITA?

Wow! You really have to be careful what you say these days.

Let’s see what the people over at Reddit think about the joke.

This person is impressed that he’s young and used that word.

Here’s a good point.

This person tells a similar joke.

That’s an interesting way to look at it.

The joke itself is not offensive.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.