What I find funny is the juxtaposition of two elements. One element is clearly a playful light-natured wink-wink claim of “Oh, no, we certainly haven’t been up to no good, how could you possibly think that”. It implies both some misdeeds and not taking oneself very seriously.
The other element is dead serious, expresses guilt and wish for atonement, and would probably find humour on the topic to be inappropriate and in bad taste.
playful light-hearted wink-wink [...] dead serious, expresses guilt [...]
Aha, gotcha. My guess at what you had in mind was some way off base. Thanks.
(I happen not to find it so funny, but if there’s one thing less fun than explaining a joke it’s explaining why a joke doesn’t work for you so I’ll leave it there :-).)
Oh dear, explaining jokes...
What I find funny is the juxtaposition of two elements. One element is clearly a playful light-natured wink-wink claim of “Oh, no, we certainly haven’t been up to no good, how could you possibly think that”. It implies both some misdeeds and not taking oneself very seriously.
The other element is dead serious, expresses guilt and wish for atonement, and would probably find humour on the topic to be inappropriate and in bad taste.
I like how these two elements stand together.
Yeah, I know. Sorry!
Aha, gotcha. My guess at what you had in mind was some way off base. Thanks.
(I happen not to find it so funny, but if there’s one thing less fun than explaining a joke it’s explaining why a joke doesn’t work for you so I’ll leave it there :-).)