Some jokes land, others crash and burn spectacularly. A server learned that lesson the hard way when she tried to lighten the mood with a table on one of the busiest days in the restaurant industry.
What she thought was a harmless quip about the Cleveland Browns turned into an awkward moment.
Server’s Joke Falls Flat
In a viral video with more than 65,000 views, server Nya (@actuallynotnya) shared a recent cringey moment.
“This is why I don’t joke with my tables,” the text overlay reads as she recounts the incident.
Nya explains she was working on a football Sunday, notorious for packed restaurants, endless TV requests, and high-stress situations. She approached a table of six white adults, including what appeared to be a grandpa, parents, and some older adult children.
“‘Hey. How you all doing? My name is Naya. I’ll be taking care of y’all today,'” she recalls greeting them.
The table immediately made a request: “‘Can you put the Browns game on that TV right there?'”
That’s when Nya decided to get playful.
“‘I’m not brown enough for y’all?'” she recalls joking.
Dead silence. The table stared at her, completely unamused, she recounts.
“‘We’re talking about the football game,'” she says they responded flatly.
Nya quickly backpedaled, attempting to recover from the awkwardness. “;Oh, yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. I got you. Let me put that on. Let me—let me get that done for you,'” she recalls telling them.
Tough crowd.
Why Football Sunday Is So Stressful
Football Sundays aren’t just another shift for restaurant workers. It’s one of the most chaotic, high-pressure days of the entire year.
According to Restaurant365, large sporting events operate on a completely different tempo than a regular Sunday shift. The crowd arrives all at once expecting immediate service, then camps out at tables for up to four hours. While guests might completely ignore staff during the game itself, they demand immediate attention during commercials, between quarters, and at halftime.
This creates an incredibly stressful environment for servers who are juggling drink refills, food orders, and constant TV change requests, all while navigating packed dining rooms and impatient customers. The pressure is compounded by the fact that guests aren’t just there to eat; they’re there for an experience, and any delay or mistake can feel like a major disruption to their game-day plans.
Data from Toast shows just how intense NFL Sundays can be: chicken wing sales soar by 25%, hard seltzer orders jump 14%, and morning sales spike as early as 7 a.m. as fans start their day with pre-game breakfast.
Restaurants see increased traffic from the moment doors open until well after the final whistle, creating a pressure cooker environment where even the most experienced servers can feel overwhelmed.
Commenters React
“Whyyyy would you say that,” a top comment read.
“Tough crowddd,” a person said.
“The way you chuckled I just knewwwwww you thought this would be a knee slapper,” another wrote.
“They saw that lawsuit flash before their eyes,” a commenter added.
BroBible reached out to Nya for comment via TikTok direct message and comment.