Do you think this was a bit harsh?

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My co-workers are mostly blokes (typical men in British language) and they like to joke around a lot. It makes us have a lot of laughs at work. But one day it went too far.

One of the men there works in the manager's office, but he is good friends with the men in my department. But he can't seem to find a girlfriend no matter what he does. It gets to him sometimes.
So anyway one day one of the men came up to me and said "guess what we're going to do? We're going to send [our friend in the office]'s name to the Undatables!" ('Undatables' is a TV show where people go on who cannot get dates).

I said "won't that be a bit harsh?" but he said that it's just a joke and that the guy doesn't have to go on the show and that he'd just get a letter in the mail saying about it. I didn't want to interfere too much, so I kind of forgot about it until I noticed that the guy in the office hadn't been around chatting with the other men lately, he just stays in the office and talks to people who weren't involved in the joke.
Somebody must have told him who the culprits were, or maybe he figured it out for himself, I don't know.

It was obvious the joke HAD offended him, just like I knew it would. I do think that joke went a bit too far. I think I would be offended too if I was in his shoes.

Do you think that joke was a bit harsh?

Yep....just typical ragging of a person. There's a purpose to this sometimes. Sometimes, it's just pure assholery.

It can get sort of irritating---but I let it roll off my chest. I'm usually not good at "comebacks"----but I'm getting better.

That's 1 'Yes' and 1 'No'...

Yes, it’s offensive. That dating show is mainly about people with severe disabilities. If I got that letter I would be pretty hurt.

Hmm... a syllogism...

a. Both KK and HB think the 'joke' was a bit harsh.
b. I respect their opinions.
: : Maybe I should re-assess my opinion, as well.

I think everybody has something about them they don't like being made fun of for. Most of the people who say "C'mon! Can't you take a joke" would probably react the same way if there was a joke directed at them about something they were insecure about.

I kind of wonder if this guy gets singled out a lot or if there's something else going on as well and this was a breaking point. It could be possible but also maybe things were normal until this happened. Not really sure what they relationship was like before then.

As for the show, I had to look it up because I've never heard of it before. I just kind of skimmed through some parts so I'm not really familiar with the show but I'm not entirely sure what the point of the show is. It seems like it's trying to be optimistic according to it's tone, I guess? Either way, I guess it depends on how he personally feels about the show.

But I'm not sure what's supposed to be funny by the end. It just seems like the joke is "He can't get a date, so let's compare him to the people on a show with disabilities." If he has a disability, that's probably only going to make him feel worse about it. If he doesn't, then what they're saying is that he's so bad at dating that he might as well have a disability because there's something wrong with him.

I think if I knew more about the context of their relationship and what kind of jokes they usually do anyway, maybe I can understand it more, but I think the matter is that a lot of people don't like to be made fun of for certain things and that's really about it.