Sensitivity: Dark

I was in a bar and told the following joke:

“What do you do if an epileptic has a seizure in the bathtub?

Throw your clothes in so they get a wash.”

Once the laughing of my friends had died down, I became aware of a man on the other side of the bar, crying and talking to the bartender.

The bartender came over to me and told me that the gentleman at the bar had recently lost his son and that my joke had offended him.

I thought I should apologize.

I approached the gentleman and offered my condolences for his loss and my apologies if my joke had offended him. He said that the joke had only got to him because his son was an epileptic, and it was a seizure that killed him.

Ignorant as I am, I wondered how a seizure could actually kill someone. The man said that his son had choked, passed out, and hit his head, and that was what had killed him. I asked where this happened, and the man said it was in the bathtub. I realized then how inappropriate my joke seemed in the moment.

“Did your son choke on his own tongue?” I asked.

“No,” replied the man. “He choked on one of my socks!”