A Papa John’s Pizza driver was fired over Spring Break after writing a joke about domestic violence on the inside of a box of double chocolate chip brownies.
Josephine Fuller, a UF journalism and women’s studies sophomore, asked for a joke on the inside of the brownie box when she ordered from the Papa John’s on Southwest Archer Road on March 5. The 20-year-old said she often asks and has received several light-hearted jokes — “Why did the boy throw butter out the window? Because he wanted to see butter fly.” — in response.
But this time, the joke was about domestic violence.
“What do you tell a woman with two black eyes?” Fuller read. “Nothing, you already told her twice.”
When Fuller, a peer educator with UF’s Sexual Trauma/Interpersonal Violence Education, saw the message, she took a photo to post on Twitter and Facebook to express her disgust.
“This is the first time it’s ever been something of that nature,” she said. “I think that’s one of the reasons I was so shocked by it.”
The driver, who wrote the joke on his own accord, was fired, said Shane Little, who owns all three Papa John’s locations in Gainesville.
“We don’t condone his actions,” said Little, who declined to identify the driver. “We don’t condone violence of any kind, particularly against women. We don’t think what he wrote was funny. We don’t write jokes in boxes; we just deliver pizzas.”
Fuller said when she reached out to the manager at the Southwest Archer Road location, he asked her to delete her tweet.
Although she agreed to delete it after receiving a full refund, Fuller said she later regretted it and decided to keep her Facebook post online, which read, “Just wanted to enjoy my meal and now I’m sick to my stomach. Last time I order from there.”
“I feel like I’d be doing a greater injustice to not have anybody know about this,” Fuller said.
Contact Molly Vossler at mvossler@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @molly_vossler
