Told a knock-knock joke at my kid's parent-teacher conference last Tuesday

I went with 'knock knock' instead of just keeping quiet and discussing grades. The teacher gave me this long silent stare before she said 'that's cute' and moved on. Has anyone else had a joke completely bomb in a professional setting like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

black.joel1mo ago

Did the teacher at least finish the joke for you? Man, I feel your pain. I once tried to crack a light joke during a performance review at work. I said something about how the quarterly numbers were like my diet - they started strong but faded fast. My boss just stared at me with this blank face and said "okay, let's stay on track." The rest of the meeting was pure silence. It was like the air got sucked out of the room. Now I just keep my mouth shut during anything even slightly professional.

thomas2751mo ago

Wait, you told a knock-knock joke at a parent-teacher conference? That's the kind of meeting where you're already on thin ice just walking in late, not cracking one-liners. I can't believe she didn't at least crack a smile after giving you that long stare, talk about awkward silence.