I’m in a group of friends and I’ll say that their names are Jack, John, and Mike. In general, I usually have fun with these guys but sometimes I find it very overwhelming to deal with Mike.
Mike comes across to me as a person who can dish it out but can’t take it. He tends to make fun of me a lot but whenever I try to throw any sort of banter back at him, he gets upset. He will always try to correct me or call me out for being wrong on the spot but if I even question what he’s saying, he will make it look like I’m “reading into it too much” or “I’m taking it too seriously” or “It’s not that deep”. He constantly one-ups me but when I accidentally do it he makes a big deal out of it.
When it comes to banter, he will make fun of how I dress, my hair, my shoes, will call me socially inept and terminally online around other people, and will constantly creating “tier lists” that just happen to have him at the top and me at the bottom. However, when I made one joke about business majors having the easiest homework, he took that as me calling him dumb and claimed it was low hanging fruit.
I’ll admit that I can be sensitive sometimes but I usually enjoy banter. However, banter isn’t fun when only you are the butt of every joke made. I’m considered a very kind and agreeable person but I’m also kind of awkward so I tend to be very aware of the fact that I will probably make social mistakes. At the same time though, it feels like he’s using this quality of mine to gaslight me into thinking that I’m the one in the wrong.
Any advice?
2 comments
Next time he jabs you, just tell him “Hey Mike, you know how you don’t like it when I give you shit, please stop giving me shit.”
>but if I even question what he’s saying, he will make it look like I’m “reading into it too much” or “I’m taking it too seriously” or “It’s not that deep”
Tell him to take his own advice.