Ah, sarcasm. Often misunderstood and even more often misused, if I could have opted to study it instead of French as my high school second language credit, I would have jumped at the chance.
Sadly, the fine art of the sarcastic bon mot is often overshadowed by the number of people who simply use it as a way to belittle others with the excuse of it being “just a joke.”
I have more than one friend who often complains about people getting mad at them for a joke, or their “dark sense of humor." But, ironically, they don’t catch onto the common denominator that’s the issue every time.
Good comedians know that a joke needs to be tailored towards the correct audience, so if your friend clearly doesn’t appreciate being the butt of a sarcastic joke all the time, then your “joking” can easily slide right into the bullying category.
Even the dictionary definition states that sarcasm is “usually directed against an individual.” That means that it can be very easy to take it too far and hurt someone’s feelings.
It may be that they simply aren’t the right audience for sarcasm’s brand of acerbic, ironic bite.
I had a boss once that just did not get sarcasm. She naturally took everything literally and a coworker kept getting in trouble for things they said when they were attempting to be funny.
Well-timed sarcasm is like dropping a mic in the middle of a conversation, but only when the moment and audience is chosen wisely.
Otherwise, perhaps I might suggest the safer, if more cringe-worthy pun as an alternative?
