I know you shouldn’t laugh, but

In The Times, a reader writes to the Sex Advice column.

I spank my wife for her pleasure, not mine. But I got excited when she was spanked by a friend as a joke. Should I ask if we can involve someone else?

Suzi Godson speaks for us all in her reply.

I am trying to think of the last time I was spanked by a friend in front of my husband as a joke. Hmm. Nope. Not a sausage. It’s just not the kind of thing that crops up in the circles I move in. When my husband and I get together with friends we have drinks, dinner, even a bit of middle-aged dancing if we’re at a “do”, but no public spanking, jokey or otherwise. I don’t wish to cast aspersions on your wife’s good character but, between you and me, to lie across a person’s lap and have them rhythmically beat your posterior is an act of such great intimacy that I wonder whether you have considered the possibility that the incident might not have been a joke at all?