There’s a big difference between laughing with someone and laughing at them, and in this story, it was definitely the latter.

When a man showed up to a casual hangout and slowly became the target of every joke at the table, he decided the best response was no response at all.

But when he got up to leave, the group chat had a thing or two to say about it.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for walking out of a situation instead of dealing with it ?

I (29M) was hanging out with a few friends recently, and everything was fine at first.

But soon a chill hangout turned rather tense.

At some point, the conversation shifted and one of them started making comments that felt a bit personal — nothing super extreme, but definitely targeted at me.

Soon he started to feel ganged up on by his friends.

At first I laughed it off, but it kept going, and a couple of others joined in.

It started to feel less like joking and more like I was the punchline.

He tried not to make a big deal of it, so eventually he plotted his exit.

I didn’t say anything in the moment, mostly because I didn’t want to make things awkward or escalate it.

After a while, I just got up, said I had to go, and left without really explaining.

I didn’t make a scene or call anyone out — I just removed myself.

His friends had a lot to say about this.

Later, one of them messaged me saying I “killed the vibe” and should’ve just said something instead of walking out.

Another said it came off as dramatic and made things uncomfortable for everyone else.

From my perspective, I felt disrespected and didn’t want to sit there and deal with it, but I also didn’t communicate that at the time.

“Friends” definitely deserves to be in quotation marks here.

What did Reddit think?

Maybe it’s time to end this friendship altogether.

He didn’t owe his friends anything when they were being this disrespectful.

These definitely aren’t the best people to hang out with.

It’s clear these people are just trying to shift the blame.

He deserves to be treated like a human being, not live entertainment.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.