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Cheezburger Network Blog
I’m confused? lol
whooo 2rd
No commenting while commenting!
that translation is pretty much correct though
Sorry to be a party pooper, but that sign is not a catch-22 – it is perfectly logical, and not contradictory. At worst, it is tautalogical.
Logic: Walking/Sightseeing at same time is dangerous, so the activities are mutually exclusive.
For those of us with the ability to walk and use our eyeballs at the same time, it is a catch-22. It’s not dangerous at all .. especially if what you’re sightseeing is in front of you. You see it as you walk toward it. If this logic escapes you, it might be time for someone to take away your walking privileges. You see to be making it far more complicated than it need be.
When you’re walking, close your eyes. When your eyes are open, don’t walk.
Actually, they are trying to say that if you are staring at the ’sights’ (possibly something off the side of the trail you are on- or a sun set- or something else that is not in your immediate vicinity) and not where you are walking- STOP walking. Have you never seen any ‘funniest video show’ or a movie where a guy is walking along and gets distracted by a ’sight’ (i.e. beautiful girl) and runs into an object (i.e. telephone pole, parking meter, car, bike, etc.)?
“If this logic escapes you, it might be time for someone to take away your walking privileges. You see to be making it far more complicated than it need be.”
Rebuttle win!
Do you even know what a catch-22 is?
Is that to me? If it is, yes, I do.
Doesn’t seem that way from your earlier reply. I agree that Walking while looking around is not a problem, but a catch-22 is a circular sort of cause and effect situation (You can’t see the flies in your eyes, because you have flies in your eyes.) This sign, While moderately amusing, is not a catch-22.
Catch-22 is a term coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22, describing a set of rules, regulations or procedures, or situation which presents the illusion of choice while preventing any real choice.
- Wikipedia
Read the book, not Wikipedia.
On second thought, neither definition is very good. But this sign doesn’t fit either of them anyway.
The wikipedia definition is wrong.
In the current financial crisis, you have to have experience in order to get a job. However you have to get a job in order to get experience.
That’s a ‘catch 22′.
If I offer you three boxes and say you can choose any one you like to get a prize, but I’ve secretly put the exact same prize in each one, that’s an illusion of choice.
Ramen to that – the book is much, much funnier than any wiki entry.
I’ve read that book and I was just about to post, “Who’s Joseph Heller?” Good thing I read the comments first.
That’s not a catch-22
I noticed that, too! Logic geeks FTW! Always hated it when a tautology would pop up in my symbolic logic exercises, though.
But sightseeing while driving is much more dangerous!
Is that exclusive or what?
Well, I live in a much visited historic city with narrow streets. Every time I need to go through the old town quickly, I run into a no-walking-while-sightseeing group of morons. So it’s no restriction sign, it just describes a sad truth…
Pretty much a description of any shopping mall.
I feel your pain, but I’ve seen similar signs in China a number of times and they were perfectly sensible. I’ve seen them close to cliffs and narrow/steep/slippery/uneven trails, where sight-seeing and walking could be quite exclusive.
(I’m taking this too seriously, aren’t I?)
(On the other hand, I haven’t quoted Wikipedia…yet.)
Obscure reference WIN!
Which reference is obscure?
there was someone calling himself obscurewittyreference – or something like that..
Me, but I don’t think I am the reference they refer to. If, as I suspect, they’re talking about the title, Catch-22/Heller is not, in my impression, obscure – in US culture, at least, the phrase is well-known (even if not always used completely correctly).
PS: Not a “him,” for what it’s worth.
solly, miss. ALL ABOOOOARD!!
That’s the only reference I could see, and it’s fairly well known here in Australia too.
PS: I figured out your gender some time ago; the chief needs to lose those shades!
*removes the shades*
Wow! Obscure is HOT!
*puts back shades*
I’ve always found obs to be incurable.
If ONLY the USA population would adapt this philosophy to Freeway Traffic! No driving while sightseeing! No sightseeing while driving!
In other words: STOP RUBBER NECKING THE CAR-B-Q VEHICLE. If a stalled car is on fire, go FASTER before it catches YOUR car on fire… which will then catch MY car on fire…
… and they’ll tell two friends….
… and so on…
… and so on…
Sadly, rubbernecking is not confined to the YouSay – it happens DownUnder all the time. Then the idiots who are looking at the car on the side of the road don’t watch where they’re going, so they hit the car in front of them, so then another lane of the road is blocked, then the rubberneckers have even more to look at, so they look at the two bingles instead of where they’re going, and hit the vehicle in front, so then you have three lanes of the freeway blocked…
Actually there is no translation error.
i wonder who enforces this.
this is not a catch-22, sorry
I think I’ll just hop.
I agree, no catch-22. failblog FAIL
Ahem. This isn’t Failblog, it’s Engrish.
From the shorter Oxford dictionary, a catch 22 (or should one say for this sign a catch er-shr-er) “a condition or consequence that precludes success, a dilemma where the victim cannot win.” So strictly speaking, this is not a catch 22; you could obey the sign by either 1) standing still and sightseeing, or 2) walking along with your eyes closed. I suggest that option 2) holds the possibility of plenty of entertainment for any observers as people wander about with their eyes shut, maybe falling down mad steps. I’m sure that even Mr. Heller himself would’ve had a bit of a giggle.
This isn’t engrish… it’s just chiasmus.
So for many people, life is a catch-22 situation.
Catch 22 is, in many ways, a more poetic rendering of the basic three laws of thermodynamics underlying the whole shebang:
1) you can’t win.
2) you can’t break even.
3) you can’t get out of the game.
If I had to pick a literary reference to go with this sign it would be Hamlet: Thanks Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz. Thanks Rosencrantz and … well, you know.
Dear sir or madame, you have won my heart. That is my all time favorite play.
Fatal System Error: Your system has encountered a fatalistic error and needs to be junked. Please buy a new system. On another side, we are happy to introduce you to our new line of systems that you can be interested with, dial 123456789-error, hurry while stocks last.
Sounds like when my internet connection goes down and I call in, and they tell me in the annoying recording that there are help topics on their website. If I could get to the flippin’ website, I wouldn’t be calling.
I think all ISPs must be like that. When I was first trying to get internet access, it always seemed that it would be so much easier to do if I was already on-line!
That might be a bit Catch-22, perhaps? To get instructions to go online, first you must be online.
If Heller had lived to see the interwebs reach the state it has today, ISP help desks would’ve made him laugh himself sick.
“I breath when I sleep and I sleep when I breath”
To sleep, perchance to breathe: ay, there’s the rub. For if we wake you, death may come…
So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth.
YES! What this world needs to make people watch where they are walking is more man-eating animals, not more signs!
I thought DEATH was the skeletal reaper chap, who communicates in ALL CAPS, and is accompanied by the Death of Rats. I don’t remember the nasty, big, pointy teeth detail.
That’s because the rabbit with nasty, big, pointy teeth was in MP & the Holy Grail, whereas Death (the Grim Reaper) and Death of Rats (the Grim Squeaker) are from the Discworld (after “Reaper Man”). I’m sure they’d recognise each other’s idioms if they ever met, though. “I EXPECT THAT YOU COULD MURDER A PIECE OF KNIGGIT RIGHT NOW?”
“I EXPECT THAT YOU COULD MURDER A PIECE OF KNIGGIT RIGHT NOW?”
Yes. Yes.
SQUEAK.
Haha awesome! Love some of the debate going on in these comments haha the sign makes sense… kinda lol
The sign makes perfect sense, it’s the comments that confuse me!
which comment is confusing? i’ll be more than glad to explain everything. you see, there’s more to life than getting confused. getting confused takes a huge effort from your part, and getting fused overnight will make not make you confused in the morning. like you can’t say money grows on trees, but trees grow on money…so fusing in the night cannot make you confused in the morning, but confusing in the morning will make you fused in the night, and vice-versa.
now tell me which comment makes you confusing?
It’s as contradictory as saying “don’t talk while being in the library; don’t be in the library while talking”.
I’m just gonna stand here with my eyes closed. I’m such a rebel.
Consistency is all I ask, immortality is all I seek, give us this day our daily week. Is life in a box better than no life at all.
Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead does seem to fit better.
The Catch is that rule 22 says if you want to be shipped home from the front, you have to be considered crazy. The catch is that if you want to go home, you’re most likely sane. The test for crazy was wanting to stay there and continue flying missions. Therefore, the truly crazy want to stay and only the sane want to leave, but since you don’t get to leave unless you’re crazy…
The translation looks accurate. If you ask me, this doesn’t belong here.
Well I think it’s very nice that blind people in wheelchairs have a special place just for them.
Makes perfect sense to me.
But what about gum chewing?
this must be in soviet russia
In soviet russia, sightseeing walks you!
doesnt that chinese character mean “to run” so dont run while sight seeing? i think thats what it is.
So, If I want to see any sights, I must stand still? Must I close my eyes while walking so I don’t accidently sightsee?