If nothing else, I have definitely tested the length of the moratorium on using “Your mom!” jokes in front of a friend who recently lost his mother. He was always pretty good about it, thankfully. :smack:
I gently teased my older brother for years, asking him when he and his wife were going to have a baby. He always just smiled and said they were just fine, thanks. One day mom overheard and kindly told me that big bro couldn’t have children due to a low count. All that time I’d been causing him pain every time I brought it up. I still feel bad about that years later.
I was working as a cashier and told two women that they had to be mother and daughter, they looked so much alike. Yeah. They were sisters. To make matters worse the older one burst into tears and hurried away. “Little sister” said ‘That’s OK. She’s just sensitive because her husband just died’.
Yay me!
I ran into an old high school friend at a department store several years ago. She was working in the electronics section. I happily bounded up to her and gushed, “Lori Smith! It’s so great to see you! It’s probably not Smith now though, right?”
God, I was so surprised when she burst into tears. Her husband had just, as in last night, run off with her little sister. It was about a week before Christmas.
Back when I was in high school, I had a wonderful friend we’ll call Joan. She was a short, somewhat heavy girl with not much neck to speak of. We were talking about Tina Turner and how great she looked for her age. (Gimme a break, we were 17) Joan said she would like to look just like Tina, and I responded with, “No way, she doesn’t have a neck!” Then I cleverly did a really obvious double take on Joan’s no-neck. I’m sorry Joan.
Also in high school (yeah, I’m a genius) I remarked to another friend that I had a shirt just like the one she was wearing. When she asked me why I never wore it I told her, “Because I think it’s ugly.” I should have just shot myself, but instead plowed ahead with, “But it looks great on you!”
Great thread.
When I was 15, I worked for Domino’s Pizza. One of our assistant managers, we’ll call him Carl, was 30 and I happened to know that he still lived with his parents.
One night, when I was feeling a little bit of tension with Carl I blurted out the remark, “Yeah, well at least I won’t be working here when I’m 30. And still living with my parents” (at the time, 30 seemed rather old)
He got really upset by that one. Demanded that I go home right away (it was the middle of my shift). I later came back to apologize, but still felt kinda crappy about it.
[hijack]
I had that happen to me about 2 years ago, and not even when I was at my heaviest. I was at a kebab shop buying a kebab for lunch. And the young guy there asked me when I was due. I was so mortified I lied and said “In a couple of months…” And he said “Ah you’re having cravings are you.” And I just nodded. I know he was just being friendly but I still cringe when I remember it.
I remember so well what I was wearing, and believe me, I never wore it again. I have also since lost over 40kg. So no one will ever ask me that again. Unless, fingers crossed one day I actually am.
[/hijack]
Social faux pas? I once pashed a guy at a friends wedding. I’d had too much champagne, which is no excuse. The faux pas? He was the guest of someone else. Even though they were not together and just friends, I still absolutely cringe 11 years later when I think about it. It is without doubt the worst thing I have ever done. Sorry Diane. 
I did something similar.
My friends and I used to make up “your mama” jokes. E.g., “Your mama’s so fat that if someone gets thirsty they can shout, ‘Hey, Kool-Aid!’ and she’ll bust through the wall and shout, ‘OH YEAH!’”
It got to be a habit. No big deal, until I was hanging out with a different crowd one night. I was telling someone about something my sister had done, and a guy named Rob came into the conversation late.
“Who’s that you’re talking about?” he asked.
It was instinct. “It’s your mother, Rob,” I said.
A horrible silence fell over the room. I could tell something had happened, but didn’t know what it was. Finally someone limped the conversation back into gear.
My girlfriend leaned into my ear and told me that Rob’s mother had recently killed herself. He was the one who found her.
I still feel sick about the whole thing.
Sign up on this board and post (and no one even knows who I am).
What a bummer…
So…Why are you still here?
When my dad was dieing in hospital the nurses baked him a cake as a treat,I refused a slice "in case I got germs ",I was only a kid but even now regret it .
Also to show what a horrible person I can be ,many years ago I tried to seduce the Bride at her wedding reception.
I think the vast moral of the most of the stories is to never, ever make personal comments when we don’t know the whole deal about someone. (As I hold up my right hand a swear to never do it again… 
)
Almost every time I put my foot in my mouth is when I make joke or personal comment to someone and I don’t know the whole story…
I learned this the hard way (for the first, but not last time) when I was in high school. I wanted to be funny, so I made a joke to my sister about a woman who was giving a speech we were in the audience for (on Holocaust Rememberance day, no less, gads). Her hair was really odd, so I whispered something critical and catty to my sister.
Needless to say, she had some rare disorder that caused her hair to be brittle and break.
Thank goodness only my sister heard me.
Completely uncalled for.
That would make it a social faux-pas, right? :smack:
I very nearly committed a faux pas the other day. I was at a meeting that included some colleagues that I don’t see all that often. One, with whom I’ve always had a pleasant, jocular relationship, showed up sans his black hair and mustache. Clean shaven and bald as a baby’s butt. I was on the verge of saying, “Hey, Bill, what’s with the Mr. Clean look?” but the meeting started and the moment passed.
Found out later he is undergoing chemo for prostate cancer.
[Official Moderator Warning]This is your third warning about inappropriate insults outside of The BBQ Pit. If you cannot control your behavior, we will.[/Official Moderator Warning]
I got blamed for someone else making this same mistake. I work in a huge factory and years ago my cousin was a supervisor in a different department. An old friend from high school happened to work in his area. He had quite the reputation for being a difficult manager to work under, I was always hearing what a total dick he was to work for and was very glad we didn’t work in the same zone. He got cancer and was keeping it quiet so as not to have all the faux sympathy to deal with and stuff, just going thru his treatments and scheduling off time by rotating with the other managers, etc.
So he comes back from what everyone was told was a ‘vacation’ totally bald and puffy from the 'roids, and my friend makes a huge crack about his looks. He deadpanned back with a comment about the chemo making his hair fall out and she just about died. Came over and slapped me for not keeping her in the loop, and of course all I’d been doing was trying to follow his “I don’t wanna broadcast it, but I’ll share when/if I feel it’s necessary” thing.
Ugh, a friend once was in an ugly mood. I asked “geez, what’s up this guy’s arse?” (luckily not in his presence). He had just had a colonoscopy for some polyps or something. :smack: Saved only by circumstance.
Just don’t go around insulting people thinking you’ll get attention. That is the quickest way to becoming a distant memory here. Be nice and contribute as best you can and people will notice.
My worst social faux-pas was when I was around 7 years old. I don’t remember how, but I somehow heard of the N-word and made a mental note to ask my Mom what it meant. Unfortunately I was reminded when a few black people walked by me and Mom on our way home and I decided to ask right then.
I hate getting flash backs of that memory.
I was at work coming in from lunch and saw my boss walking out leaving for the day. As is my habit, I said “have fun with the rest of the day” or something witty like that.
Once I got back to my desk, co-workers let me in that the boss was leaving because his dog was just run over by a car.
When he got back I gave him a “sorry for the passing of your pet” greeting card.
Gawd, what a schmuck.
A variation on the mistaken pregnancy faux-pas:
I was at a bar with my drunk friend. We saw this girl who, in my opinion, was NOT pregnant. She was very cute, although she did have a bit of a belly. Anyway, my drunk friend decides to admonish her for drinking while being pregant. All I heard was: “I’m not pregnant you jerk-off!”
So I go over to get my friend away and tell her: “Don’t mind my friend, he’s just retarded.”
Then she says: “So is my little sister.”
My drunk friend and non-drunk me managed to insult the poor girl and her sister. :smack:
This reminds me of a music class when I was little; we must have been singing a Stephen Foster song because of the the kids asked our teacher what “darky” meant. Not a faux pas, an honest question, but our teacher got a tad flustered.