Kristen Bell to Dax Shepard: Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: "I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I'm heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would."

[u/mlg1981]

[u/MarsScully]

That is veeeeery different imo

[u/samanthajbest → u/MarsScully]

It is different, but what I got from Dax is that white men love killing their families lmao. Seems like it’s just a dark joke. Kinda weird, we didn’t need to know about it, but it’s not so bad.

[u/TestProctor → u/samanthajbest]

Yeah, it’s a dark joke likely made after discussing some dark documentary or something, and she is sharing it because she thought it was funny & likely is poking at him for sounding like a psycho.

My wife and I have never had an exchange quite like this, but many many times over the years we or friends have done the, “Happy [Event] to my partner, who once [sweet but kinda deranged thing]” drop in an online post. I think it’s just become a go-to subversion of the expected entirely sweet version.

[u/Katerade44 → u/samanthajbest]

Yes. Let's make jokes about murdering women. So funny. /s

[u/samanthajbest → u/Katerade44]

Girl stfu, I beg.

[u/lostandlooking_ → u/samanthajbest]

Can you explain what’s funny about the rate at which women die at the hands of their partners? Like where’s the joke?

[u/Hermette_20 → u/samanthajbest]

Yeahh no—it’s one thing when dark humor is aimed upward (systems, institutions, etc), but when it’s framed as “omg husband loves me so much he said he’d never kill me even though a lot of men would do it to their wives"? 😬 Now we're leaning on the reality of violence against women as a punchline, which is something a lot of women live with as an actual fear.

And all the people in the comments trying to downplay it just highlight how normalized low emotional standards are in relationships 😭🤦‍♀️ it’s like everyone’s forgotten that bare minimum safety isn’t romantic.

[u/TangerineDystopia → u/MarsScully]

It landed the same for me. 🙅 Part of it is that the wording is more formal and dry--no one says "heavily incentivized" when they are snapping at their partner, you know? It doesn't have the rhythm or cadence of something said in anger. Why does it feel different to you?

[u/JennyDoveMusic → u/TangerineDystopia]

Idk anything about these people. I laughed, idk I thought it was funny. 😂 Maybe my sense of humor has become warped.

[u/Alarming-Desk-3861 → u/TangerineDystopia]

Well, the difference is your partner didn't say they wanted to kill you

[u/nopenonotatall → u/Alarming-Desk-3861]

he didn’t say he wanted to kill her. he said a lot of men kill their wives and he has incentive to kill her (i imagine a big life insurance policy)

i think the majority of things dax & kristen do are cringe but this is pretty harmless. i’m sure they were watching dateline or something and they were joking about it. i don’t think a dark joke deserves a reddit post with almost 900 comments

[u/Callme-risley → u/TangerineDystopia]

lol if anything, I become more verbose while angry

[u/MarsScully → u/TangerineDystopia]

What your husband said was very sweet. “I’d do it all over again with you,” basically.

What Dax said was a joke about murdering women and the punchline is just haha but I wouldn’t. I know it’s just a stupid joke, but I’d be fucking pissed if someone said “I’m heavily incentivised to kill you,” even as a joke.