And Then There’s Darrell
I accidentally mixed up an inside joke with the wrong friend group, with disastrous results. Friend group #1: The “joke” was when someone calls and asks who’s all there, we would add Darrell to the list of names. Darrell wasn’t a real person.
The joke wasn’t really funny, and made no sense out of context, but I guess that’s why it was an inside joke. Friend group #2: I was hanging out playing some drinking games with a bunch of people who I hadn’t hung out with in a while.
It was a kind of get together to remember a friend they had who had recently perished in a car accident. I didn’t know him that well, but I was always down to party. Anyway, the phone rings, and the person who answered started listing off names.
Sorting my cards for another round of President, I offhandedly said, “heh and Darrell!” It was the typical record-scratch moment where everyone stopped and looked at me.
Except it was even more awkward than that. Darrell was the name of the friend who had just passed. This happened in 2002 and I still think about it all the time. Story credit: Reddit / 20XD6_1936