Can an NT please explain this to me? I don't get it

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I sold alcohol on a supermarket for a while, and that's the most likely explanation. Supermarket workers actually don't care about customers at all. I don't mean that in a bad way, but they get thousands of customers, all pretty much the same, and the workers' brains don't respond after a while. They are far more likely to be thinking about the computer system, or something a fellow worker said, or whether they can get time off work that weekend. Checkout computers usually come up with messages saying "ask the customer this" and sometimes it is comically inappropriate.

I remember customers would sometimes have credit card that did not work, and the customer would be hugely embarrassed, because they think we are judging them for not having enough money. But really we didn't care at all. Whatever the customer did or said made no difference to our jobs. Every supermarket claims to be customer focused, but it simply isn't true: my employer was constantly giving us new rules and all of them were for the company's convenience, not the customer's. Rules like wearing the uniform right, or checking if people were under 25, or finding a supervisor is X or Y or Z happened. Customers simply don't figure on the radar, except as something to sell to.

The joke probably wasn't about you at all.

Last edited by trappedinhell on 24 Aug 2011, 2:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Here's what I think it was, and I'm saying this because it happens to me all the time.

She didn't make any mistake. She pretended that the computer said you were too young, hoping to get a reaction from you, as someone said above. It could have been flirting. But you didn't react, either because you know it isn't true or you were slow to process what she said, or because it just wasn't funny. So she had to point out that she was joking when she said that, because she was embarrassed that you didn't react.

I have, literally years later, suddenly realized that's what happened in certain situations similar to yours. I think this is why people think we have no sense of humor, when in reality we just don't laugh at stupid jokes.

but a lot of young girls who waitress are bimbo's who laugh at the drop of a hat about nothing. its what makes their "bubbly personality" that all the boys respond to.

True, and it's arguably one of the most irritating things in the world.

I dated one once. After a month i envisioned myself stabbing her in the face with a screwdriver, i think thats when i knew it wasn't going to work out.

Maybe she was embarrassed so she laughed and her saying it was a joke was a cover up for her mistake because she was embarrassed?

Sometimes people laugh when they are embarrassed and sometimes people say they were joking when they were not.

Everyone knows that jokes don't have to only be of the traditional punchline sort.
It's just that sometimes there's just nothing universally funny about something. The fact that someone is laughing as though there is something amusing really does make them look stupid, and the additional "head laughing" only makes it seem worse. Maybe it is good that people are aware that they're not being funny. They'll then hopefully learn to quit it.

It's not funny.

It's not you lol. She's just not funny.

She probably didn't make a mistake and it probably DID say you were old enough, but she felt like saying something absurd because I'm guessing you obviously look old enough for one reason or another. In essence, she was teasing you.

She could've also made a mistake, but still thought it funny to say something absurd.

Either way, she took humor in saying something that was obviously wrong: i.e., you weren't old enough. It's obvious because you obviously looked old enough, and she was teasing you. Get it?

I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that you definitely look older than 21. Am I right?

Yeah once I start getting those impulses I really know it's over myself.. typically by then it was already hugely obvious anyway though

But yeah, some people also simply laugh at things that aren't actually funny. It's one of the unique traits that make them them instead of another person.

Multitudinous times I have amused myself with something I've said while no one else seems to care. Hysterical laughter, no, but it's the same idea.. This used to annoy me but I don't care nearly as much anymore, I amused myself and that's quite magical.

Really I can't rationally explain laughter anyway, and since language is rationality, I can't actually do much wordwise, but look at all the words I've typed just now

I think I do. I'm 30 and have a 2 month beard going right now so I'm pretty sure I look older than 21. I just can't see why saying I am not 21 would cause her to start laughing at me. It could have been her teasing me, but I don't know.

I don't think I've ever seen a system in ANY sort of retail where they actually enter your birthdate into a computer. Likely scenarios:

1) She may have been trying to make a joke to cover embarassment about carding you
2) She may have been flirting?

Also
If she was so monumentally stupid that she couldn't figure your age by simply reading your birthdate:

1) I certainly hope you checked to make sure she handed back the right change.
2) She must have been new to the job as anyone working more than a day would know what year is the cut off point. Even a moron.

It may be a regional thing.. when I go to the supermarket they ring up the card somehow on the register and it shows the age on the display - which some supermarkets also show to the customer. They also tend to have placard-like things under the plexiglass on the counter that say 'IF YOU WERE BORN AFTER 1980 YOU CAN'T BUY BOOZE'.

Tragically I believe the idea is that some employees can't do the math themselves, so why risk it

They enter birthdates into cash registers for many purchases, not limited to alcohol and tabacco. Bought over the counter supplements and they did.

I wish the op had included his age, because if he is 45 and she said he wasn't old enough, then that is an entirely different situation than if he is barely old enough to make his purchase.

People can never figure out what someone meant, or what was going on, the moment comes and goes. Even if there were 5 cameras recording the event from different angles, and participants were interviewed extensively afterward, we still woun't know. Let it go.

I'm 30.

So, it's possible it was just her being goofy because she messed up and it was funny because you obviously ARE old enough to buy what you were purchasing. Maybe she was a little embarrassed at her mistake, maybe she kind of liked you, maybe she jokes in some way with every customer. Maybe she was thinking about her boyfriend and just in a good mood, or thinking about leaving her boyfriend and in a good mood, found out she is pregnant and was happy, or her period started and so she wasn't pregnant so she was really happy. Maybe she hates the world and was being mean, maybe she usually doesn't make mistakes, and was surprised she did, maybe she always makes mistakes with the register and it just tickled by it. Maybe she was remembering a night of drinking what you were buying, was distracted so she put in the wrong date, and was laughing at that. Maybe she is a recovering alcoholic who was relieved that her life is not a mess, so her mistake just was funny to her compared to all the really horrendous mistakes she had made in the past, maybe she was so attracted to you she was flustered and put int he wrong date and so thought it was funny.

See what I mean? It was HER, not you, even if it was something about you, it was still HER.

Please don't worry about it.