What do You Call an Italian Prositute?

In an attempt to break Jessie out of her funk, I tried a couple of jokes on her to get her to laugh. Here’s one.

Me: What do you call an Italian prostitute?
Jessie: I don’t know. What?
Me: A pastatute. Hahahaha!!

(silence)

Jessie: I don’t get it.
Me: Well, you see, Italians are famous for pasta and ‘pastatute’ is just a play on words for ‘prostitute.’
Jessie: Oh.
Me: Are you feeling any better now?
Jessie: No.