Your worm story reminded me of that. It's not as NSFW that yours I think, though.
The worm story is a bit too much and I would not have told it but the other things were perfectly fine in my opinion. It looks like you were not allowed to ask anything personal or even people's opinions, while still being expected to get along/be friendly with your colleagues? Seems paradoxical..
Anyway, my deer story. So, it was something that happened when I was a young university student, and that I told several times in labs in France with lots of success. People thought it was funny, and sometimes even asked me to tell it again to newcomers. That was 'Vothn's funny story', more or less.
When I started as a PhD student in Canada, I wanted to show my lab that I was fun to have around, so.. I told the story.
OOPS. Nope, nope, not safe for work here.. they were nice though, just looked very embarrassed and someone made a comment like 'it must be fun to work in a country where this is ok', or something similar to show me it's not ok, but she understands cultural difference (it was said nicely, not sarcastic). Also, them and other labs of the same uni have been so nice with my constant swearing, I really can't complain. But that was odd and unexpected.
NSFW for Canadian academia, but SFW for French academia ^^
So when I was a student, I did a study on the rut of the deer, with several other students (a mix of girls and guys). We were at the library, discussing our results.
One of the main things we were looking for were 1) male is mounting female 2) penetration occurs and 3) ejaculation occurs.
As you can imagine, making the difference between 2 and 3 can be tricky and subject to experimenter bias. So it gave something like that (as I can remember 20 years later):
(in science library)
Student 1 - Wait, at XXminutes YYseconds, you forgot an ejaculation!
S2: Nah, there was none
S3: Yes there was!
S2: no, I'm pretty certain not. The angle of the body was not right, it is very unlikely that..
S3: HEY STUDENT 4 (who was passing by, but in another aisle) DID THE LARGE MALE EJACULATE THE SECOND TIME?
S4: YEAH I THINK SO!
S2: COME ON GUYS! I WAS THERE! HE DID NOT!
S1, S3, S4, S5, me : WE WERE THERE TO! HE DID!
And then we see the 3 math students at a table a bit away, looking both amused and appalled, probably wondering what kind of orgy the biology students are organizing
However, the worst overreaction I ever had was in France. My boss came to complain about me being drunk after a work lunch (I was not) and insinuated that I was being flirty with the invited scientist who was 40 year older than me, and all info my boss had was pointing toward us NOT being compatible in term of sexual preferences. I mean, I know she could not know for sure and age difference is not always a barrier, but still, it was an extra "WTF? Why??". Remember when you said some people think you are stupid because you are too enthusiastic? That was the same idea. 2 people meet, have in common a relatively rare interest for English Opera, BOTH speak enthusiastically -> the youngest one must be drunk and flirting..