AM I THE A$$HOLE FOR MAKING A POSSIBLY OFFENSIVE JOKE
I, (15 F) am a freshman in highschool. My friend (15 F), who I'll call Kay for this story, has been my close friend since 5th grade.
One day on one of my other social media accounts, I made a joke that stated 'I honestly wouldn't mind if a pretty girl k!lled me'. I thought that this joke was harmless, but soon after posting I got some comments. All of this comments were from one person who I didn't know, and they were a bunch of hate comments.
I know hate is common on social media and I've gotten plenty of hate before this, but this time was different. These were a series of comments calling me a womanizer and masoginistic (even though I'm a girl), even going as far to threatening to track me down a k!ll me themselves. Instead of commenting back something witty like 'I'd ask if you're a pretty girl but your comments tell me all I need to know', I decided to be the adult in the situation (even though I'm a literal child-), and just block the person. I felt guilty about my joke though, so I deleted the post altogether.
This encounter with that person made me feel like a bad person for making a joke like that, so I decided to talk to my friend Kay about it to get it off my chest.
Kay said that the joke wasn't that bad, but the bad part was me joking about me dying. Kay started to defend the person who sent me the de@th threats, which hurt. Kay was someone I thought I could trust and would want me around, but she flat out told me that the person would be in the right if they k!lled me.
This hurt my feelings and made me not want to think of Kay as a friend anymore, especially considering she acted as if she said nothing wrong after, but it makes me wonder if I am the jerk for that. I thought I was making a harmless joke that would find the right crowd, but instead it was a joke that ended up being offensive on two different fronts that lead to de@th threats.
This happened roughly a month ago now, and I no longer feel safe around Kay. She is in therapy for wanting to k!ll a few different people who annoy her and her therapist wants to send her to a mental hospital, but hasn't been yet. Ever since the joke insident, Kay has told me that I'm annoying her and to never joke like that again, even though that was the only time I've made a joke like that. I'm scared, but she keeps making feel as if I deserve something bad to happen to me for making that joke.
This leaves me wondering, AITA?
Posted May 5, 2025, 1:58 AM UTC