I'm somewhat new to the corporate world and sometimes I feel like I don't know what you can and cannot joke about. Today at work a couple coworkers and I were joking around as you do on a slow Friday afternoon. Me and one of the coworkers were trying to help the other coworker come up with new hobbies for him that aren't golf, sports betting and hunting. Nothing wrong with those hobbies, we were just trying to be more creative.
Jokingly, I said, "Why not just join the Air Force?" I didn't mean that being in the Air Force was a joke, more so that joining the US Air Force is a massive commitment and the complete opposite of a "fun, easy hobby". We all laughed and then kept naming hobbies.
Another man who is known for being a jokester and has been at the company for decades came by and I told him, 'hey, xyz is joining the military!" Obviously joking and the intent was to have this older gentleman join in on the laugh. The older gentleman kinda went into a story about a guy he knew that went really far in the Air Force and made a whole career out of it. I told him that it was impressive, but that we were joking and just naming fun, outlandish hobbies for my coworker. He laughed it off too.
But as my coworker was leaving for the day (The one I said should join the military), he told me that I should watch what I say, that people know people and talk, and that I can't just go around telling people stuff like that. I immediately apologized and was kinda surprised he was so upset because I thought it was an obvious joke? He laughed about it earlier but when I told someone who is technically outside of our immediate team, he got angry. After he left, I pulled the older gentleman aside and doubled down on the fact that we were completely joking and meant no disrespect and he even nodded like everything was good.
Am I missing some cues about what you can joke about in corporate America? My team is ridiculously chill, even my managers, but we still work in a corporate setting. Did I overstep by trying to be funny and tell the man outside our team a funny joke? I don't want to spend the weekend worrying that I just wrapped my coworker into a weird, maybe tough spot.