I was at a friend’s mother’s wake service not too long ago. After the wake, a group of us were talking to our mourning friend who seemed to be taking it fairly well (or at least better than how I took it when my own mother passed away not long before this incident).

This friend was talking about his work for a bit and mentioned that he had just received an email from his boss that morning with condolences as well as a bit of uplifting news; his request for a promotion got approved.

Everyone else congratulated him but I sort of gave a smirk and didn’t say anything. I have a reputation with this group of friends for being a snarky cunt sometimes, which they seem to enjoy, so the mourning friend asked what’s up with the smirk, and I said it’s inappropriate to say out loud. The rest of the gang insisted I say what I was holding in, and so I said simply “sympathy promotion”. Which got a lot of “oh duuuuude. Too soon.” from everyone.

I’m aware that with any other crowd, this was super inappropriate to say, but having already given a disclaimer of sorts and still being asked to say it, am I the asshole?