Woman considers breaking up with boyfriend of five years because he won’t stop making the same joke

Editor's note: This article was originally published on June 23, 2022. It has since been updated.

Every joke has a shelf life and it's imperative to know when it stops being funny. One woman is considering breaking up with her boyfriend because he won't stop repeating the same joke. The couple was in a shop when they heard a man being silly with his son and talking in a baby voice. The couple found it funny and they made the joke to each other for a bit, but soon she realized that he couldn't converse without making the joke and it started to get annoying. She turned to Reddit to ask if she was wrong "for refusing to talk to my boyfriend because he won't stop using the phrase: 'Do you want some 'Pwingys, for the room?'" 

"My boyfriend and I were on holiday in Tenerife a few months ago. We were in an all-inclusive resort and were standing in one of the shops in the lobby where you can buy extra snacks and stuff. A very posh British man walked in with his 12ish-year-old son and they were looking around the shop," she wrote. "They went over to where the crisps were and the boy seemed very interested in the Pringles. The father then asked him in a very cutesy, possibly over-the-top for his age voice, "Do you want some Pwingys, for the room?" Yes, he called the Pringles 'Pwingys.'"

The couple found it quite funny. "The first few days were fine, we were both joking about it and kept repeating it to one another as it was a funny way to refer to Pringles, especially as the man was talking to his son like he was a baby. This was at the start of our 2 weeks holiday," she wrote, adding that the joke never ended for him. "He did not stop saying 'Do you want some Pwingys, for the room?' for the whole 2 weeks we were on holiday. He would literally say it at least once a minute. He would even torment me by starting a sentence completely unrelated to it, then finishing with 'Do you want some Pwingys, for the room?' as some sort of sick punchline."

She was even more annoyed that the joke had returned home with them from their two-week holiday. "It's now been over 3 months since we've returned and he will not stop saying 'Do you want some Pwingys, for the room?' It is driving me insane. I have begged him to stop, but he honestly thinks I am just playing along with his joke. I can't have a serious conversation with him because he always manages to slip in 'Do you want some Pwingys, for the room?'" she wrote.

While providing a little more context to her relationship, she said, "This is a 5-year-long relationship and it was absolutely fine up until this point. This is the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, but now I don't even want to see him because I'm afraid of when he will say 'Do you want some Pwingys, for the room?' I am now refusing to talk to him unless he stops. I'm honestly afraid that he will say he's going to stop but then just carry on. Am I blowing this out of proportion?" she posted on Reddit.

The Reddit community had a laugh at the post, but a majority of the users sided with her and felt he had taken it too far. Some even speculated that it was a passive-aggressive way to facilitate a breakup. "Definitely something else going on here. Reminds me of that post where the OPs husband spent almost an entire year constantly using baby talk with her in order to win a baseball and then doubled down when she finally found out what was going on and then she divorced him over it," wrote one person. "I was annoyed with you for the sheer number of times you repeated that phrase in your post. I couldn’t imagine having to constantly hear it," one Reddit user commented.