A throwaway joke in a group of ten becomes a story told ten times. Be careful what you drop in crowds.

A crowd is a copying machine. A line that worked once, in a room with context and a tone of voice, gets carried out by ten people and retold without either, and the version that survives is the shortest and sharpest one. You will not be there to explain it. The person it was about hears the copy, never the original.

Before saying something at someone’s expense in a group, ask whether it holds up stripped of context. If it only works because everyone present knows you did not mean it, it is not travelling with that information.