Bridesmaid gets attacked by bride's MIL at wedding after she makes an AI joke.
When this bridesmaid gets cornered by the bride's MIL, she asks Reddit:
'AITA for making an offensive joke in my bridesmaid speech?'
I was a bridesmaid at my friend’s wedding. We are both working in tech and met in college in the 100 level computer science class. I wrote a heartfelt speech for the wedding but when googling more about bridesmaid speeches I found some hilarious articles about people having Chatgpt write their bridesmaid/groomsmen speeches for them.
I showed my friend and asked if she would be ok if I ended the speech with something along the lines of “written by Chatgpt”. We laughed about it and she thought it was funny and agreed.
I made the speech and everything was fine. Then the groom took me aside and told me to explain what I meant by the end of my speech to his mother. I was kind of confused and asked him why his mother doesn’t just Google it and he said she doesn’t really get technology.
So I waited until the party was dying down and went over to his mother (he had pointed her out to me) and asked her what she wanted clarification on about what I said at the end of my speech.
The grooms mother then rounded on me and asked me why the bride would make me a bridesmaid if I was so lazy as not to write my own speech. I was shocked and told her I had written the speech but that it was an inside joke between the bride and me (and other techies in the audience) that Chatgpt was incapable of writing such a personal speech.
She got really riled up and told me that she knows AI can now do writing work and that I was just lazy I couldn’t be bothered to do my own writing for a friend’s wedding and it “inappropriate”.
I didn’t get what she was so offended about but apparently she made it a big deal to the bride that she had lazy friends and therefore it meant she was also lazy for using the computer instead of “working hard”. She assured me it was nothing on me but I feel kind of guilty I unintentionally caused some issues between the bride and the MIL. AITA?
Let's see what internet users had to say.
dinafelice writes:
You didn't make 'an offensive joke,' you made an innocuous joke, approved by the bride, that her MIL chose to take offense to. Even if you had used AI to write your speech, why on earth should that have mattered to the mother of the groom? Why was she so annoyed that you were 'lazy'? It's not like you are either her employee or her child, so who cares?
NTA. And I strongly suspect that this is par for the course with this woman. Look at the evidence: the groom avoided explaining the joke to his mother (probably hoping that she'd take it better coming from a stranger, rather than berating him or his bride for being lazy), and your friend assured you that you weren't a problem.
jennifpur writes:
NTA, and also not an offensive joke. This lady needs to chill. It sounds like she really just isn’t happy with the wedding and your friend, and just used you as an excuse to lose her shit. I had an inlaw like that. It’s just passive aggressive and rude. Just be glad she’s not your MIL!!
consistentpa0 writes:
NTA. I do have to know OP; did the groom take it in stride unlike his mother when he learned of the joke, or was he also offended? Is your friend okay with it? Yes. Then it's fine. You actually made it a point to ask your friend if you wanted the inside joke or not. She's not the AH, you're not the AH. Neither can I blame the husband, because he didn't know the inside joke.
Because to my knowledge bridesmaid, groomsmen, and best men/maid of honor speeches are often interwoven with such jokes purely for the entertainment of the guests, the couple, and the rest of the wedding party. As long as they're not offensive, sexist, or maliciously targeted, they're fine.
I can't blame the mother either (since she's old /s) if this is a one-time thing, but if she maintains it and makes an even bigger issue about this in your face or in front of your friend, then it's a problem.