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30 Of The Funniest Petrol Shortage Jokes And Memes As Twitter Reacts To The UK’s Panic Buying
When the pandemic first started and countries closed their borders to travelers, there was a lot of panic among citizens about how we would get products from other countries that our own countries don’t manufacture.
The most famous example is Japan: when a rumor was spread that all of their toilet paper was manufactured in China and that they should stock up, Japanese people started to panic buy. Later it was debunked and turns out, Japan produces its own toilet paper, but the rumor made people buy more than they needed and that created a toilet paper shortage.
A similar situation is happening now in the United Kingdom, but it’s not toilet paper. The UK is experiencing a shortage of fuel, because people are buying it in insane amounts even if they don’t need to because they fear that later they won’t be able to get any. However, as always, people on the internet are expressing their stress through ironic and sarcastic jokes and this serious problem has led to numerous memes being born.
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#1
Dilly Millandry 4 years ago
Sadly not but there are these: https://metro.co.uk/2015/05/01/12-uk-pub-names-that-are-all-kinds-of-wrong-5177116/
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Phil Maglass 4 years ago
No there is no shortage of fuel, BP said they had a shortage of drivers to deliver the fuel. The English voted for Brexit and the Tories and what is funny they are now getting exactly what they voted for, a right wing corrupt government that does not function, now thats funny
The United Kingdom is experiencing fuel shortage and gas stations are closing down because they don’t have any supplies left. People are starting to panic, which is understandable; even if they don’t own a car, they understand that public transportation will not operate, so people will have problems getting to their jobs. Ambulance, police, and firefighters all run on fuel, so the concern is not without basis.
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#2
chi-wei shen 4 years ago
Right now we are too relaxed to care much about a pop-corn shortage. Seeing the Brexit chaos is very entertaining.
Devil's Advocate 4 years ago
Nothing to do with Brexit, everything to do with a leaked rumour than the south MAY have a SLIGHT petrol issue, so everyone in the whole country tried to fill up in the same few days creating a shortage that wasn't there because nobody planned for the morons.
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Kevin Erdős–Bacon 4 years ago (edited)
I wonder if the Brits are all tearing down their "keep calm and carry on" posters too :D
Chris Jones 4 years ago
Well, gosh. I popped my collection of jolly war-style posters in the old fireplace and set fire to them with a cry of 'tally-ho'. Pip, pip and toodle-loo old chap. Have a jolly day.
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Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
Would you join me in my bashing the skulls of BBC execs in with a club?
#3
The root of all this chaos is actually not the shortage of fuel itself. In fact, the UK has plenty of raw materials and even plenty of the product itself. What is really the problem here is the shortage of lorry drivers to transport the fuel to the gas stations. Bored Panda reached out to John Fender, Emeritus Professor who was teaching Macroeconomics for over two decades at the University of Birmingham. He says that his impression is that the drivers' problem was always there, but it suddenly it got worse.
The Road Haulage Association claims that they need 100k drivers at the moment and they have tried to convince the government to make it easier to employ immigrants as after Brexit, the process is even more complicated. However, the government doesn’t think that it would be a long-term solution and is encouraging employers to invest in the local workforce instead of depending on foreigners’ labor.
#4
Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago
Initially, in like March 2020, my husband and I bought several packages of TP. But not for the same reason these hoarders did. Our neighbors on both sides are elderly, and we’d heard reports old folks were having a hard time competing with the nastier, Black Friday-like hoarders. So we bought extra (a few times, tbh, until TP was no longer scarce) to give to them, so they wouldn’t run out. We do the same with other necessities when things like hurricanes/tropical storms/huge snowstorms/etc are headed our way.
wow that's fantastic 4 years ago
why need petrol when you have a car that runs on bits of pieces of used toilet paper?
#5
Auntriarch 4 years ago
You needn't laugh, this is serious, there's already a shortage of tonic
#6
Tigger 4 years ago
The media caused this sh#t, this is just their way of mocking us. There is no fuel crisis, there's no petrol because people heard the words 'panic buy' from the TV and the stupid idiots who are selfish and greedy filled up their cars to the brim and then filled up several jerry cans. Whilst causing traffic jams because of all the cars queuing up for petrol.
Devil's Advocate 4 years ago
Yep, but the forecourts were happy for them to do it because then they make their profit and have all hiked up the prices! It's illegal to carry more than 10L of fuel without the proper licence, but did they care? Of course not.
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Joy 4 years ago
Brexit and the media along with one of the most immature and colossally stupid governments currently operating in the G8 is embarrassing to us Brits. We point the finger at what we patronisingly call developing countries with bellows of corruption, sleaze, racketeering and lies, yet are living through the catastrophe of Brexit thinking as long as we're able to brew a cuppa and enjoy a pint, we'll be OK. It is staggering that Brexit has been allowed to happen. And next year we'll still enter Eurovision like utter arseholes only to be delivered null pwah from a Europe that can no longer be bothered to entertain us.
However, the problem has to be solved immediately and Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative government decided to issue 5,000 three-month visas for truck drivers starting in October, and another 5,500 for poultry workers. It will hopefully allow British people to not worry about how they will get to their family and friends to celebrate Christmas.
#7
Paul C. 4 years ago
Yes Brexit has had an effect on the number of drivers but there is also the fact that every year 45,000 drivers take and pass their HGV licence, last year, because of Covid, that number dropped by 15,000 and is set to do the same this year. Also there is a shortage of over 400,000 HGV drivers in Europe.
ADHORTATOR 4 years ago
this is correct, there is also a shortage in the EU. But here drivers can swap to another country without any problem
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Donny 4 years ago
Six years on and leavers are still too stupid and stubborn to admit what a mistake Brexit was 🤣
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Scagsy 4 years ago
No HGVs means no coal to supply the power station that in turn supplies electricity to your Tesla. I've never understood the smugness of electric car drivers. Do they think that electricity just appears out of the ether?
StayClassy 4 years ago
Uh... I live in a state where 75%+ of our electricity is from renewable sources.
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Thomas Turnbull 4 years ago
Just remember this day when you paid 10 grand over the odds to buy your car and then later spend 4 Grand on a new set of batteries when your old ones wear out.
For most people, it is quite obvious that the shortage of workers is related to Brexit. Professor Fender says that another big contributor to the issue was also the pandemic, as well as other reasons. But it seems the government doesn’t want to acknowledge that and in a statement said, "But like countries around the world, we are suffering from a temporary COVID-related shortage of drivers needed to move supplies around the country."
Also, they claim that there is no shortage at all and that the country has "ample fuel stocks" which is technically true but that didn’t convince people to continue buying only normal amounts of fuel.
#10
#11
Roxy Eastland 4 years ago
They're not making money though. They're not able to get the petrol faster than before - there's a shortage of drivers! And when they aren't selling fuel no one's also grabbing a bar of chocolate and a pint of milk while they're there. They are not doing well out of this at all.
#12
Liam Walsh 4 years ago
Yep. People should only be allowed to fill one can and only if they've not driven there!
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Thorfin Wolfsbane 4 years ago
When we had a brief gas shortage in the southeast US, dummies were putting gas in plastic shopping bags. Nobody can out-stupid the southeastern US!!!!
Vernice Aure 4 years ago
At least he isn't filling plastic grocery bags, plastic storage bins or *cringe* the plastic lined back of a pick-up truck. This is in the USA... of course.
chi-wei shen 4 years ago
Four months ago we saw the same pictures from the US. https://www.boredpanda.com/usa-gas-shortage-pics/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
Blayne 4 years ago
Yes, parts of the east coast was short on fuel due to a pipeline being shutdown (for a few days) due to a cyberattack by Mother Russia.
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Phil Maglass 4 years ago
England the cuntry that just keeps giving, Scotland, the doors to freedom are wide open and Boris is the bouncer.
Stannous Flouride 4 years ago
At least he used gas cans instead of plastic bags like folks did here in the USA.
Professor Fender explained how these kinds of shortages start: "Even if there’s no objective reason for a shortage, if enough people think there might be a shortage, then they might panic buy and hence cause a shortage. Even if I think there’s no genuine shortage, if I think that enough other shoppers are going to panic buy and hence cause a shortage, then that’s a reason for me to panic buy, and so forth. So panic buying can be a perfectly rational response to the possibility of a shortage (or to the possibility that enough other people might think there might be a shortage …). The same sort of process underlines bank runs."
#13
Ren Karlej 4 years ago
Well, it's not actually a UK image but it serves for the joke.
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#14
Hotdogking 4 years ago
Anyone else binging the Simpsons to find out what’ll happen nest this decade or is it just me?
Remi Flynne 4 years ago
I know they say 'forewarned is forearmed' but I'm not sure I could deal with yet more bad news right now!
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Delilah Simmons 4 years ago
When you are arguing with your family about the what the world should do like a model UN or sh** and reference the Simsons. Credibility times 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Even though the fuel shortage is causing chaos, people are stressed and they are panicking, they still find ways to get a laugh or two from the whole situation. They are reacting in meme or joke forms, using sarcasm to try and cope with everything that life has been sending their way lately.
What do you think of these reactions? And what are your thoughts about the whole situation with the fuel in the UK? Leave all your reflections in the comments and upvote the tweets that made you laugh the most!
#16
#17
Rob Dabank 4 years ago
"Because I like my car to have enough fuel to get me to the toilet roll wholesalers..."
#18
Sky Render 4 years ago
That seems silly, but believe it or not, locking gas caps became a thing because of a gas shortage. Back during the 70s gas shortage in the US, it was not uncommon to discover that your car's gas had been siphoned overnight by a ne'er-do-well.
Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago (edited)
Hey, all it takes is a siphon hose and a bucket. Someone did that to me back during the gas shortage in the late seventies. They somehow managed to take a quarter tank of my gas. So I’m really glad gas caps now lock.
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#19
Robert Bailey 4 years ago
Damn, the way things are going they'll be sailing across the see to be with their Uncle Sam.
#20
Watching 4 years ago
Nothing unhinges Conservatives more than actually having to watch their own kids. God forbid if you talk about homeschooling them!
Shalini Pabreja 4 years ago
Hard to spend so much time with little versions of you that spit out smartass answers just like you. For anyone actually.
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Wondering Alice 4 years ago
Yesterday morning a (normally sensible) teacher told me she had been driving round for hours the night before looking for petrol - found none. She had run out, so had a long walk in the rain to get to school. Asking me where i'd found mine i told her i hadn't tryed. I had a few hours drive worth of petrol, so i thought i'd save it for getting to and from work instead. Giggling, we tried to work out if there was a lesson in that.....
#22
Nathan Pogorzala 4 years ago
That is totally one of our American morons. Don't steal our morons!
Thorfin Wolfsbane 4 years ago
Couldn't be an American moron seeing as how he is using an appropriate container - we panic buy our gasoline in plastic shopping bags.
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Hugh Walter 4 years ago
Taken in Florida a year ago and already used in a fuel-idiot meme, although Trumpundbrwreakshiteers are all alike!
Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago (edited)
He has zero idea just how heavy that container will be when full. It’ll probably flatten that flimsy trailer. Plus, it’s really going to affect his ability to steer when it starts sloshing around. My husband is in pest control, and has a 100 gallon water tank on his work van. He says he even has trouble steering that heavy van when the water tank is full and the water is moving back and forth.
David carro 4 years ago
Well... Probably he has got heavy machinery, and due to all the shortage in fuel drivers, he could not get it refill on his own property, so he has to go to a petrol station, an pay full price to fill it.
Sue Hazlewood 4 years ago
I reckon the eejits filling the back of their utes beat this one. Also in America.
Marco Conti 4 years ago
That was the Southern US States "Petrol Panic" (Gas panic). I wonder if the sales of fuel stabilizer went up accordingly once these morons realized it was all for nothing. My favorite were those that put gasoline in plastic shopping bags.
Kevin J. Henning 4 years ago
Actually, please feel free to take as many as you want. We always seem to get more.
Rob Dabank 4 years ago
My entry for the petrol siphoning championships - or at least he will be when it comes to getting it out of that container and into his car!
#23
#24
Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago (edited)
Or, if you’re small enough, you can just put a saddle on the dog.
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California Jones 4 years ago
Imagine the Irish adopting British families. How the tables have turned.
Hugh Willie Mungous 4 years ago
You should compare the GDP of both countries.
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Jane Moore 4 years ago
sad considering how the nasties have just dropped Universal Credit by £20 pm.
Dolly_of TheCowboy 4 years ago
I can remember as a child our primary school had sponsored a child from Africa and we would all dutifully bring our 20c piece in once a month for the whole school to lay it out in a big snake shape, count it, and then it would get sent off. The television was full of "sponsor a child in poverty in Africa to make a difference in their life" commercials. Now they are all "sponsor a child in poverty in Australia to make a difference in their life". I am from Australia and this is the reality of about 20 odd years of the conservative mentality in politicians in power punishing those whom cannot get a job, in a system designed so there are more people than jobs, keeping prices high, home ownership unobtainable for the majority, wages artificially low and working conditions tenuous. Stops the masses actually kicking off to overthrow the government when you are more concerned about if you can avoid homelessness and reliance on food banks than being able to take time to protest
Allan Breum 4 years ago
Sorry, but anyone who uses more than 1-2 hastags are Seriously undercutting their own argument.
#26
Phil Jones 4 years ago
Noooo! This is how it feels, I was waiting to hear petrol tankers being hijacked
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#28
Devil's Advocate 4 years ago
Illegal containers, illegal quantity, prosecute the idiot and he might learn!!
A Head 4 years ago
Yeah, that gas is going to dissolve those containers unless they're rated for it, which I don't think they are.
Load More Replies... wow that's fantastic 4 years ago
when he said urine i thought he was actually peeing. wait, is he?
Rob Dabank 4 years ago
Do you think he has forgotten where is petrol tank is?
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Johnny English 4 years ago
Some car insurance companies won't cover youin an accident, if your carrying/transporting fuel.
Ellie Rosser 4 years ago
No probs, his house will burn down if he parks his car with those gas cans in the garage.
#30
Devil's Advocate 4 years ago
Sitting in a queue for fuel: 30 minutes, recharging stupid electric car for the same range: 2 hours
GFSTaylor 4 years ago
You can't get out of your petrol car and do something else while in a queue. The owner of the electric car is doing the grocery shopping.
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Robert T 4 years ago
One of my local pubs has Tesla charging stations. I'm not quite sure what to make of that - are they encouraging drinking and driving or is it a stroke of genius? " Alright love, I'm just off to the pub to charge the car."
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
No no. they're one step ahead of everyone. Right now, the self-driving car still has its problems, but wait a few years and that pub will have MADE it!
Load More Replies... Nazda Pokmov 4 years ago
But electric car owners don't notice or pretend they don't notice the loooonnnnnggggg wait.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
Certainly not by burning petrol. Nor is it brought by truck-drivers. Yours?
Load More Replies... #31
Girts Frīdbergs 4 years ago
I couldn't figure it out without checking comments. Noice :D
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#32
Hugh Walter 4 years ago
Just make sure Boris doesn't have that tractor off you for the coming 'land army'!!
#34
#35
Monday 4 years ago
is that odd? BP fuel stations are pretty common where I'm from.
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Gin 4 years ago
My husband's timing is impeccable - he's just finished repairing his bicycle. And taking apart mine. Sigh...
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Devil's Advocate 4 years ago
Yeah, wasn't a fan really. Great acting, but too real if that makes any sense, like watching a 2 hour Oxfam advert
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M O'Connell 4 years ago
If I were trekking through a future dystopian wasteland, I would much rather have a jogging stroller (the kind with three wheels) than a shopping cart. Can you imagine how awful a shopping cart would be away from paved surfaces?
Joey Marlin 4 years ago
I like your optimism that there would be sufficient choice.
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#39
#40
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
See? Even he is using the correct containers! Learn from this, folks...
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What do you think ?
Ryan Deschanel 4 years ago (edited)
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Kevin Erdős–Bacon 4 years ago
Hello Foot, please meet your new friend Bullet #KeepCalmAndCarryOn
Debbie Barnes 4 years ago
The worse thing a politician can say, is not to panic. That's enough to send everyone running for the petrol pumps and loo rolls. They'll never learn, will they.
Chris Jones 4 years ago
Fortunately, it only sends the stupid people. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of them.
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Muff_Fluff 4 years ago
You wouldn't want to come here. Your mind would be blown at the cost of healthcare.
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Monika Rhodes 4 years ago
This makes me so mad. I can't drive because idiots are selfish. Now have to wait for petrol delivery near me. I might miss work because of this s**t!!
NsG 4 years ago
I know it's meant to be funny, but it's just sending my anxiety levels through the roof. This country is getting worse, and I'm genuinely scared that we'll hit rock bottom and come Tory tw@t will convince the masses to start digging.
Load More Replies... Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago
Reminds me of the gas shortage back in 1975. Long lines, stations running out. They started having “Odd and Even Days”. If the last digit on your license plate was an odd number, you could get gas on odd-numbered days. Same for even numbers. Made people pay attention to how much is in their tank so they wouldn’t run out. Plus, the stations wouldn’t have everyone filling up at once. Or so they thought. People just hoarded gas. You know, in case they used up an ENTIRE tank, commuting to and from work until the next day they were allowed to get gas.
Ryan Deschanel 4 years ago (edited)
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Load More Replies... Kevin Erdős–Bacon 4 years ago
Hello Foot, please meet your new friend Bullet #KeepCalmAndCarryOn
Debbie Barnes 4 years ago
The worse thing a politician can say, is not to panic. That's enough to send everyone running for the petrol pumps and loo rolls. They'll never learn, will they.
Chris Jones 4 years ago
Fortunately, it only sends the stupid people. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of them.
Load More Replies... Muff_Fluff 4 years ago
You wouldn't want to come here. Your mind would be blown at the cost of healthcare.
Load More Replies... Monika Rhodes 4 years ago
This makes me so mad. I can't drive because idiots are selfish. Now have to wait for petrol delivery near me. I might miss work because of this s**t!!
NsG 4 years ago
I know it's meant to be funny, but it's just sending my anxiety levels through the roof. This country is getting worse, and I'm genuinely scared that we'll hit rock bottom and come Tory tw@t will convince the masses to start digging.
Load More Replies... Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago
Reminds me of the gas shortage back in 1975. Long lines, stations running out. They started having “Odd and Even Days”. If the last digit on your license plate was an odd number, you could get gas on odd-numbered days. Same for even numbers. Made people pay attention to how much is in their tank so they wouldn’t run out. Plus, the stations wouldn’t have everyone filling up at once. Or so they thought. People just hoarded gas. You know, in case they used up an ENTIRE tank, commuting to and from work until the next day they were allowed to get gas.
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