My corn joke cleared a whole family reunion in 90 seconds flat

At my cousin's cookout last Saturday, I tried that classic ‘why did the corn cross the road?’ bit and added a punchline about the chicken being ‘on cob-ination.’ My uncle laughed, but his wife just stared at me like I’d insulted her potato salad. Then their 8-year-old started crying because she thought I was making fun of actual corn. Within a minute and a half, four people moved to the other side of the yard and my mom whispered that I should ‘go help with the grill.’ I thought it was harmless, but I clearly missed some family rule about food puns after 6pm. Nobody talked to me for the rest of the night except my cousin who asked if I was doing okay. Has anyone else had a joke bomb so hard that people physically left the area?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_charlie23d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that story from @sam17 about the Heimlich is exactly what I needed to hear, because I felt like the only one whose jokes backfire that bad. I read somewhere that timing is everything with puns, but honestly, I think it's more about knowing your crowd. My family has a strict no food jokes rule too, but they never told me until I bombed like you did. People literally started rearranging lawn chairs to get farther from me, which was almost funny if it wasn't so sad. At least your cousin checked on you, mine just handed me a spatula and pointed at the grill.

sam1724d ago

Pulled a similar move at a family dinner once with a knock knock joke about a cow. My grandpa laughed so hard he choked on his roll and my aunt had to do the Heimlich on him. After that, every time I opened my mouth someone would say "please don't talk, we just ate." The whole table got quiet and my mom made me sit by the kids for the rest of the night. Took about two years before anyone let me tell another joke around the holidays.