The powers that be recently got together and decided that the signs inside Zurich public transportation were unacceptably lacking in humor, stereotypes, and surrealism. Much to my delight, they fixed all three problems at once, making my daily tram rides a lot more entertaining.
Care to guess what the following diagrams are trying to tell us?
Before you go out and buy a sombrero and a hand saw to bring on your next trip to Zurich, It may help if I explain that in the German-speaking world, a red circle around something means “no”. Yes, it would be clearer if they went a step further and put the slash that the rest of the world understands to mean something is forbidden, but then it wouldn’t be nearly as fun to guess at the meanings of these things.
PS – People look at you funny when you take pictures of signs on a crowded tram.
[See updates to this story under the tag mariachis.]
1. No atomic bombs or (no sub-marining pot smoking term)
2. P.S. Your balls ARE showing
3. really obvious, NO Mariachi bands allowed
4. No carpentery while commuting
No smoking next to people with big cotton candy Afros.
The second one is clearly “no poor people”. The Daily Show examined the problems with the new poverty craze in the US. Obviously Switzerland is concerned about the trend coming here too. Switzerland’s attempt to help the poor is consistently thwarted by their insistence on keeping their pockets inside-out.
My friend Kim’s answers almost made me pee my pants:
1. your hair is smoking
2. bums ahead, pratice I have no money move
3. This train goes to Mexico
4. This is the DYI tram
my favorite is the DIY tram!
i think my husband almost peed his pants when i was reading him these.
i hope they come up with ones as cool for geneva.
I think that second one (with the pockets) is prohibiting people to tell the joke “i’ve go an elephant in my trousers. here are the ears, wanna see the trunk?”