I’d be… well, a little bemused, but if you explained it to me I’d be touched. Really. 
Okay, cool your jets, I’m not a creepy stalker or a drooling skeevy old man. I forgot to mention that I work in an organic hippie communist weirdo-beardo Food Cooperative, not a buttoned-down office burbling with repressed sexuality. We tend to be more forgiving of bizarro workplace stuff like giving each other nicknames based on old vaudeville preformers.
Well, I still say you should leave Barney Google out of the comparison 
Well in that case I see no problem, that he works at a hippie coop is good enough for me.
I call my coworker “Erk” though his name is Eric (hard to spell phonetically. Think Eric without the I. Airk). Is that a pet name?
It’s true. I’ve met him. Never seen him drool.
Is that anything like a chicken coop?
Are they like Bette Davis eyes?
did Bette ever play the banjo?
Couldn’t you find some other characteristic to compliment her on?
I doubt that a comparison to Eddie Cantor in any way would compliment any female-even one who is old enough to remember him and have been a fan…
Just sayin’.
No. That’s just being annoying.
Bolding mine
Which is not to say she liked it.
Nothing that is any way connected with the concept of a banjolele can possibly considered a compliment.
I’m surprised she didn’t drive sharpened pencils into your ears the first time you said it.
I dunno - I like it. Of course, I love giving everybody and everything nicknames; the weirder, the better. My husband, Jimmylips, isn’t too sure about this habit of mine. I think I would morph it into “Ol’ Banjo Eyes” at some point, but that’s just me.