This mug, from the Red Robin restaurant chain, is one of the mugs that floats around my office.
When I first saw it, I thought, “That’s awfully racist”. It is, after all, making light of slavery. But then again, it might only be as racist as Robinson Crusoe himself. Does that instead make it funny? A clever literary reference? Or a moment of ignorance on the part of the Red Robin marketing team? As suggested by the highlighting, did they structure the entire joke around the word “Robin”? Because that’s quite a stretch. Nonetheless, I think Red Robin should probably stick to Cathy/Dilbert-esque jokes for their mugs.
Some suggestions:
“Ack! Other than shopping, coffee is the only thing that keeps me sane!”
“My boss is totally unreasonable.”
“Why hasn’t he called? Ack! Is it because I’m fat?”
“Work sucks your will to live. But at least there’s coffee.”