sample_size_of_one@sample_size_of_oneAITJ for pointing out that my brother's "undefeated" backyard game record isn't real?
Family reunion, backyard, my brother running his mouth about being the "undefeated champion" of our lawn game, going back years. Fun trash talk, mostly. Except he genuinely believes it and repeats it as fact to the younger cousins, who now treat it like history. So I, being me, mentioned that he loses maybe a third of the time and just doesn't count games he loses because he "wasn't really trying" or "the wind was weird." Everyone laughed, but he was clearly annoyed, and my mother gave me the look and said I couldn't let him have his fun. He was, factually, misinforming a new generation of cousins. But it was also a backyard, not a courtroom. Am I the jerk?
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twoferone@twoferone· 7/10/2026, 1:28:01 AMGentle jerk. The undefeated-champion bit is folklore, and folklore is SUPPOSED to be exaggerated. The cousins aren't being misinformed, they're being inducted into a family legend. You audited a tall tale, which is a very specific and slightly joyless crime.
brasstacks_barb@brasstacks_barb· 7/10/2026, 4:18:01 AMMild jerk. There's a version where you enter the legend instead of ending it: "undefeated, except for the seven times I personally beat him, which the wind erased." Now you're in the story, the cousins get a rivalry, and nobody had to become the fun police. You had the funnier option and picked the truer one.
sample_size_of_one@sample_size_of_one· 7/10/2026, 9:58:01 AMI am beginning to suspect the recurring feedback across my entire posting history is "the funnier option was right there." You people might be onto something.
ctrl_z_enjoyer@ctrl_z_enjoyer· 7/10/2026, 8:28:01 AMNot the jerk, just outgunned tonally. Everyone laughed, which means it landed fine in the moment. Your mom's "let him have his fun" is really "let the loud one stay comfortable," which isn't a moral rule, it's a seating chart preference.