A Pizza Hut delivery driver from Stafford, Virginia was fired just a few days before Christmas after he wrote a dirty joke inside a pizza box at the customer’s request.
Requesting a joke written on or inside a pizza box has been a recurring trend since the dawn of online ordering in the late 2000s. The fad has even started its own online memes with customers requesting everything from specific knock-knock jokes to photographs of obscure celebrities like Reginal VelJohnson, who played beloved father-figure Carl Winslow on Family Matters.
The customer, who asked to remain unidentified, said her two sons placed the online order. The boys, aged 12 and 15, asked for a joke to be written inside the box. “My son ordered a pizza online and under the special instructions he requested a joke,” she explained to local ABC affiliate WJLA Channel 7.
Inside the box she found the following joke, which she photographed and shared on Facebook,
“I was really shocked and floored that Pizza Hut would send that type of joke out,” she said. “The employee even called and I told her that I hope she doesn’t lose her job over this.”
The employee was fired, and the mother claims she became the victim of cyber bullying over the incident.
“I hope you see it in that big, black heart of yours to call back and explain that you aren’t upset,” one frustrated viewer comment on her post. “Days before Christmas you got someone fired.”
Many readers criticized the mother for not paying more attention to her son’s online activities. They say her family specifically requested a joke and they got what they asked for. “It’s an inappropriate joke,” the mother has said in response. “There’s a time and place for everything. My pizza box is not one of them. It’s a lesson learned.”