There are some phrases that just don’t make sense. They get printed on shirts, billboards, and street signs, and if you encounter one, you’ll know it. Looking thrice and turning your head upside down won’t help. Asking for a friend’s help in deciphering the message won’t do much either.
You may call these phrases cursed and you wouldn’t be wrong. But there is an online group that’s not only entirely dedicated to these nonsensical phrases, but has also defined them as a phenomenon worthy of our attention on its own. Powered by 603k members, the Don't Dead Open Inside subreddit is a place for “signs and media that read as nonsense if read normally: from left to right.”
It may sound tricky, but bear with me. Below are some of the funniest signs that require 0% common sense and to throw everything you know about sentence structure out the window. Who knew that there could be so much sense in such nonsense?!
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This Is Actually Pretty Clever
Jesus Scares
Will There Be Blood Or Not!?
Just like most things on the internet, the subreddit Don't Dead Open Inside wasn’t created out of nowhere. The trope first came to internet users' attention when its name was used in a promotional poster for the TV series The Walking Dead. To this day, the Don't Dead Open Inside poster, revealed on July 2nd, 2010, stands as one of the most recognized examples of the trope in popular culture that caused the cult following on Reddit.
According to Know Your Meme, the infamous poster featured a photograph of a double door with the words "Don't Open" written on the left side and "Dead Inside" written on the right, which should be interpreted "Don't open, dead inside" if read in the correct order. The whole fun of the trope is revealed when the reader reads the phrase line by line instead, which sounds like "Don't dead open inside."
Well That Seems Unfair
Choose Abortion Life Kills
Well if you think about it.... Life does kill at some point....(/s)
5 Extremely Slow Children Playing
Knowing the speed things surf around social media, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a couple of users on Twitter shared their reactions to the unusual poster on social media. In the following years, “the memes based on the joke were made, with Know Your Meme user irish_swede archiving one such example on March 12, 2013,” reported Know Your Meme.
On May 17th, 2014, the subreddit r/dontdeadopeninside was created, where the community collected cases of the trope found in popular culture, design, advertising, etc. Today, it’s home to 603k members that follow a strict set of rules for submissions.
Doesn’t Sound Like Fun
Don’t Save A Life Be Afraid To Give Blood
Shosple Colupis
The first and most important rule is that all posts have to comply to DDOI format. “Signs must be read correctly top to bottom, and incorrectly left to right, like any text, usually. Though it does not matter how easily you can read them, it is highly encouraged to only post images with little separation or spacing between the columns of words.”
The community doesn’t allow both reposts and memes, and encourages users to “put the 'correctly read' way in the title, like 'DONT DEAD OPEN INSIDE.'”
Guaranteed Reduced Quality
7 Surprising Black Ways To Use Beans
Aliectass
Stolen From My Friends Snap Story
I Am Dond
Stand Hong With Kong
Well If You Insist
If You Were In A Car, Would You Know What Accident To Do?
Spread Cream Not Cheese Disease
The State Of Washi Wangton
Dip Dip
Stop Earth The Denying Is Dying!
Don't Go Kill Vegan
Saw This At Work Today And Immediately Thought Of This Sub
That tree is giving some wierd vibes (can't decide if they are good or bad)
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This is another example of the importance of punctuation. "Don't, Bees, open outside." Also, articles are important. I know Russian doesn't use them, but English does. It should read "Don't, Bees, open the outside." Also, Bees could be a typo, and the sign is supposed to read, "Don't, Bess, open the outside." Unfortunately, Unless Bess knows what is meant by opening the outside (of what?) the sign is pointless. YOU HAD ONE JOB
And who cares. We have a bee tree and no one has been stung. European honey bees are gentle creatures.
maybe the bees are trying to get in to escape the tree’s giant erection.
Literally thought that too, I wonder if they did it on purpose for that reason
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oh ok bees, u dont like the outside, well welcome to the inside ;)
I have read these words in every order possible and they STILL make no sense!!
I'm assuming it is 'don't open (the window because there are a lot of) bees outside' . Maybe they've had a swarm. That can be pretty scary.
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I don't understand how people make this mistake. There is no instance in which English is not read left to right FIRST, then top to bottom.
No, bees CLOSE outside. Put that pollen down! Honey's for closers only!
Seems to me that there should be a question mark at the end, then it would be the sort of thing my sister would say. 'Don't bees open outside?'
Always Forgotten - Missed Never
Drug Is The Free Key
Was There Even An Intended Order To Begin With?
Truly Inspiring
My Hometown Parade. Dear God
Vote Dump Early Trump
Friend Of A Friend Got A New Tattoo
This Is A F**king Massacre. Thing Made Me Want To Dead
Who Thought This Was Acceptable
Enroll Your Russian Child Now
Jesus Are Is Coming You Back Ready?
You Think Some Tattooist Hate Their Own Work?
This Giant Poster In My University Dorm
Drugs May Kill You, But Never Your They’ll Hurt Feelings
Teachers Who Love Teach Children Teaching To Love Learning
Hear That Noise? We Are Growing. We Can Fix It Again. Apply Inside
My Girlfriends Kitchen Tiles. Forffee Coyou
Spicey Vaccine
This Was In My It Class Today
I’m Call Pregnant Me
Call Me Don’t
Note: this post originally had 70 images. It’s been shortened to the top 45 images based on user votes.
So many of these are due to people not understanding that westerners read left to right, not top to bottom
If they know English, they must know how the Westerners right.
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The ones that just kill me are the signs posted at schools BY TEACHERS!
Me too; too much stupidity and, unfortunately, hate as well.
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Who thinks it's a good idea to have two vertical phases right next to each other?
Why is it that when we make signs we completely forget that we read left to right?
Urgh it's too early for such torture!!!! (its midday) My poor brain hurts after all of this!
It's 4am and I can't sleep so why not read some sign fails? Except my kid crawled into bed with me because he had nightmares and finally settled into sleep again so I had to stop after reading each one of these to try and catch my breath after stifling my laughter. OMG IM DYING 🤣
For the most part, a simple column line separator would Have done the trick
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No, but you are the only one who added an extra S and somehow is able to type with an accent somehow.
Load More Replies... So many of these are due to people not understanding that westerners read left to right, not top to bottom
If they know English, they must know how the Westerners right.
Load More Replies... The ones that just kill me are the signs posted at schools BY TEACHERS!
Me too; too much stupidity and, unfortunately, hate as well.
Load More Replies... Who thinks it's a good idea to have two vertical phases right next to each other?
Why is it that when we make signs we completely forget that we read left to right?
Urgh it's too early for such torture!!!! (its midday) My poor brain hurts after all of this!
It's 4am and I can't sleep so why not read some sign fails? Except my kid crawled into bed with me because he had nightmares and finally settled into sleep again so I had to stop after reading each one of these to try and catch my breath after stifling my laughter. OMG IM DYING 🤣
For the most part, a simple column line separator would Have done the trick
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No, but you are the only one who added an extra S and somehow is able to type with an accent somehow.
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