Perhaps, but “sit like a lady” could be taken as (and if addressed to HRC by a heckler in a public setting almost certainly would be meant as) not, “keep your legs crossed,” but “sit down and shut up.”
Mostly, but not always. Sometimes they’re meant to be ice-breakers, or to diffuse a tense situation or to strengthen social bonds, or to impress a date.
And there’s a difference between “supposed to be funny” and “funny”. I’m pretty sure “I’m not an alcoholic, I’m a drunk! Alcoholics go to meetings!” is “supposed to be funny”, but it’s not actually funny.
Right. I admit that part of why I was thinking of the phrase is a bit of ‘bleed-over’ from another thread.
Agreed, and there’s a difference between being jocular and being boorish. My problem with the “Iron my shirt” is that a person with manners knows the joke is lame. It’s oooooold. Time to come up with something new, already.