There will be people who take any comment too seriously. Comments made even in jest have a way of backfiring. All to often, the speaker interprets his/her remarks very conservatively, and the listener interprets the remark very liberally. That's the fault of language, especially one so filled with nuances and double-meanings as English.

The same thing has happened on both sides of the table, so one side should not get self-righteous and both have been guilty at one time or another - and will be again and again.

We should be adult enough and smart enough to ignore noise for noise sake.