A familiar joke should be allowed to retire when it no longer feels kind to everyone inside it.

Running jokes outlive the situation that made them funny. The nickname, the story about that holiday, the standing tease about someone’s driving or weight or old mistake, started with affection and can slowly become the only way a person is described. Nobody notices the shift, least of all the people it flatters. The person inside the joke usually laughs along, because objecting would cost more than enduring it.

Think about which recurring joke in your circle might have stopped being funny to its subject. Let it go quietly, without a discussion that makes them explain.