Why can't vegans take a joke?

Did you tell a joke to a vegan recently only to find them upset? Are genuinely curious as to why vegans just can't seem to "take a joke?" You are probably aren't--you probably said it knowing it would piss them off, so you could then go around talking with your friends about vegans not being able to take a joke, but in case you are genuinely curious, I will break it down.

First of all, was it really a joke? For it to be a joke, it has to be funny. There has to be some some sort of punchline or wit at play. "Bacooooon ahahaha." or "Well now I'm going to go eat a hamburger! ahahah!!" are not jokes.

So maybe it passed that litmus test, and the vegan still didn't find it hilarious. What were you joking about? Were you making light of veganism? Or making fun of how vegans are so preachy? Were you stereotyping vegans as incompetent hippies whose opinions aren't worth listening to? Consider it from the vegan perspective.

When you make light of veganism, you make light of this:

(these are the corpses of baby male chicks disposed because they don't serve a "purpose" in the egg industry)

When you make light of veganism you make light of animal cruelty. Well that just shows that vegans can't take a joke! You might say. You don't mean to make fun of animal cruelty, you are against animal cruelty--shouldn't that be obvious? Well it isn't, not if you aren't vegan. If you continue financially supporting the industries that cause animal exploitation and suffering, if you pay for animal abuse, don't expect me to assume that you are against it when you joke about it.

The thing is my vegan friends and I make jokes making fun of carnism, but also veganism, but it's okay because we know that it's all in good fun, that none of us are actually making light of animal cruelty, because that is made clear by our actions.

The thing also about jokes about veganism I see a lot of people making jokes about veganism either as a defense mechanism, because they find it is too challenging to engage with this depressing material seriously, or they joke as an ad hominen attack to make the conversation about vegans rather than the animals who suffer. I urge you to stop joking about bacon and hamburgers and silly vegans, and turn your attention to whether your actions are aligned with your values. And then once you go vegan, come back and we can joke about veganism.