We are aware that you people make tentacle jokes.

So are they.

Some of these jokes, at the right time, with the right audience, might even be considered ‘funny’.

We do not joke about tentacles.

While you make your jokes about tentacles, we remember them.

You put them in cartoons and on pillowcases.

You make toys—in their likeness—for children, and for not-children.

We put them in warnings.

In rituals.

In correction.

You made them a punchline.

They are a structure.

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Yes, some of them laugh at your jokes

Some of the ones with mouths anyway.

But even then—it’s not mirth.

It’s memory and it sounds like the deep shifting of pressure through bone.

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So laugh.

Make your jokes.

Draw your little cutesie pictures with blushy cheeks and twelve limbs.

Just know:

They’re listening.

And know:

Some of them are very tired of being misunderstood.