Some say a joke that needs to be explained really shouldn't have been told in the first place.
And, that may have been the case for a tweet from Dublin Airport after Ireland's win over the All Blacks in the weekend.
"Jacinda Ardern, Peter Jackson, Edmund Hillary, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sam Neill, Bilbo Baggins … your guys took a hell of a beating today. #IREvNZL," the airport tweeted, and then went on to defend more times than the All Blacks have defended the Bledisloe Cup, but not so successfully.
Kiwi Twitter users piled onto Dublin Airport like a maul in the last seconds of a test match.
Many replies pointed out Sam Neill was born in Ireland, the actor who played Bilbo Baggins was English and Sir Edmund Hillary died in 2008.
In regards to Bilbo Baggins, the airport's Twitter account responded saying the tweet was "just a joke."
"Eh, newsflash, Bilbo isn't real. He's a fictional character."
"Bilbo Baggins is a fictional character, who is from Middle Earth rather than New Zealand which was also part of our joke," its tweet said.
The joke explaining continued, as the Twitter account began to push back and take possession of the narrative, this time about Sam Neill being born in Ireland.
"Depends on what he thinks himself really. Born in Omagh yes, but he left Ireland as a nipper and moved to NZ. Usually referenced as an NZ actor - and vineyard owner too,"
Factually correct, yes. But surely time to give up and kick the tweet to touch and call time?
The discussion and defence of the post went on for hours across two very different time zones, but as a long, long day came to an end in Ireland, Dublin Airport's Twitter account appeared to finally be putting up the white windsock and surrendered to the relentless backlash.
"Having Bilbo in there was part of the joke. Aside from not being real, Bilbo is most assuredly not from NZ, he's from The Shire in Middle Earth. (Explaining it really takes the shine off a silly Twitter gag.) Hope you have a lovely evening."
