Yeah, and I find it funny precisely because of the stretching to make the labels — it makes it feel like it’s making fun of people who would unironically call things fake and gay in a manner that was nihilistic and homophobic.
It’s similar to how I hate the “git gud” gatekeeping that can be quite prominent amongst fans of games like Dark Souls. However, I take great joy in saying “git gud” in a context where it’s patently absurd, like when my housemate arrives home completely drenched from torrential rain. It turns the joke back on the gatekeepy rhetoric
Yeah, this is great advice. It’s unfortunate when pressure to do social niceties holds you back from enjoying meaningful connection with people. Some people are better at remembering dates than others, and caring enough to ask (and put it in one’s calendar) is at least as powerful a gesture as actually remembering it.
OP could take a jokey tone to things, such as by expressing surprise that she was able to remember, and then asking what her birthday is