Man slammed for 'out of line' joke during best man's speech

A best man found himself in hot water after a joke in his speech was judged to be 'out of line'.

Of course, being chosen as someone's best man is an honour, but it is also a lot of pressure.

It means you're someone's closest and most treasured friend, but it also means you have to humiliate this person in front of all of the nearest and dearest people in their life.

Gauging the best man's speech is an art form - there is an expectation that it will be funny and a little risqué, but you don't want to push the boat out too far and mar the special day.

How do you appease the mates without offending the grandparents? How do you amuse the grandparents without boring the mates?

One bloke thought he'd nailed it when a gag he nicked from the internet landed brilliantly; however, it later came back to bite him when the groom gave him an earful over the 'embarrassing' joke.

The 34-year-old best man explained what happened in the 'Am I The A*****e' subreddit, keen to gauge whether he or the groom were in the wrong.

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He wrote: "I (34M) was recently the Best Man at my friend's (36M) second wedding, I was also the best man at his first.

"I saw this joke online and it made me laugh so I stole it and for my opening speech I said 'right well....welcome back everyone,' which got more than a few laughs, especially from the bride (31F) who seemed to find it hilarious.

"Everything went well, speech over and done with, though later on after a few drinks my friend began to rip me a new a*****e telling me I was out of line with that kinda joke and how I'd embarrassed him and it wasn't funny and that I shouldn't have brought his last marriage into this, I mean a best man's speech will always be more jokey than anything and beyond that it was fairly tame and that was the only reference to his last marriage... was I really that out of line?"

redsnapper / Alamy Stock Photo

Pleasingly, the most popular response to the post was: "Tell him you're sorry and you won't use it at his next one."

Indeed, another Reddit user recounted a wedding gag which made the 'welcome back' joke seem comparatively tame.

They wrote: "Wedding I went to pre-pandemic was our friend's third. The best man handed out pre-stamped cards, saying that at the fifth wedding, you could redeem it at the bar.

"The hall EXPLODED. Best wedding guest moment of my life."

Others concurred that the best man had basically just done his job and the groom should have known what to expect - especially seeing as this was his second time.

One person commented: "If you weren't a tad bit embarrassed by your best man's speech, did you really have a best man?"

Another added: "Don't have a second wedding if you're embarrassed, it's a second wedding."