Yesterday I wrote a post all about Chinglish and the curious and rather beautiful images that it can produce, today on the other hand I shall be having a quick look at some intentionally silly signs in English, and one or two that are obviously not intentional, but simply the production of what Frank Zappa called the most common thing in the universe – stupidity.
So let us head on out into the world of silliness and start with a couple that are obviously the result of ether stupidity or the lack of education on the part of whoever designed the signs.
Actually this first one could well be the result of a degree of innocence that would be surprising in a politician, even an aspiring one!
And this one is simply stupid. Who on earth would allow this to be placed in public view? Makes you wonder how competent the medics will be in this centre. Or perhaps they have achieved the impossible and managed to reduce the time spent waiting in doctor’s waiting rooms to a matter of seconds.
And here is another one…. How on earth could this have not been seen by whoever commissioned it? It is a very odd world we live in. Though come to think of it, perhaps it is simply stating the truth, and now they do serve good food as opposed to the lousy stuff they used to serve… Hmmm….. Who knows?
I wonder if in fact the food they used to serve was so awful? Weird idea.
One has to wonder what sort of mental processes were involved in deciding on the wording of this sign. Do people never stop and actually consider what it is they have just said?
Whenever I have seen this “The door is alarmed” sign I have wanted to do this……. Never have, sadly.
Well now, I would never have thought of that problem……. I despair of humanity sometimes.
And this sort of thing makes it even harder for me to agree with the idea that humanity is at the top of the evolutionary tree somehow.
This one below seems to me to be nothing more than simple good advice, and not silly at all, it merely looks silly at first glance.
And here is a perfectly normal sign, but one that has always puzzled me.. What on earth am I supposed to do about those falling rocks?
And as the finishing touch, here is a rather beautiful and friendly bit of language mangling for your amusement. But you do have to give them points for effort I feel.
Well, that is all for today, I hope that you have enjoyed this small sample of the wonderful idiocy of the human race, I have.
OZTHOUGHTS 