the cool cowboy flicks his cigarette butt into the street. But he lives in an old movie.
Engrish Photo by Matthew M
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The cool cowboy
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Like Spike Spiegel and a mild 7 or Henry Dorsett Case and yuhen or whatever?
haha! nothing cool about a smoke ugh!
Whose idea was to hire Charlie Kaufman to write anti-smoking ads?
I rike it!
Cowboys smoked filter cigarettes??
In Marlboro country!
I believe you mean FLAVOR country.
only the cool ones
uhh.. okay, the point of this sign is?
Anti-littering WIN!
Being indirect about it WIN!
Don’t throw your butts in the street ’cause you’re not in an old movie. c’mon.
I guess someone in Asia assumed that people throw their cigarette butts into the street to be cool, like American cowboys.
Everyone I’ve ever seen do it either doesn’t want to mess up their car or clean their car, depending on how you look at it.
I think it’s trying to say cigarettes are out of place in the old west? I don’t know when filtered cigarettes were invented. >___>
Nobody assumed anything — except maybe you for figuring “Asians” aren’t sophisticated enough to use humour in a PSA.
Japan Tobacco is a very smart and sophisticated advertiser. This is as funny in Japanese as it is in English — that is to say, pretty funny, for something that’s chastising you to have some manners and to not litter with your cigarette butts.
The difference between Japan and the English-speaking world is apparently that the Japanese can appreciate humour like this. Perhaps even bilingually.
FYI, there is a whole series of these smoking manngers PSAs. They’re all pretty good: http://www.conbinibento.com/photos/index.php?gallery=./Smoking%20Manners
I lived for a little while in Japan and I actually saw these in a few places. They always made my day ^.^
It might have been funny before, but you’ve killed it.
The fortieth on of those is SO funny. XD
“The only thing that should be stuck in the snow is ski gear and your own face.”
XD
thanks for ruining the buzz captain joykill
Shyeah, Johhny Raincloud! :[
I’m asian and I still found it funny….
Way to ruin a moment.
Agreed. THis isn’t even Engrish. At most, you can say they’re missing a comma, but that’s about it.
What’s it doing here then?
Actually, it’s considerably LESS funny in Japanese – how’s that for weird?
The literal translation of the Japanese part is:
“The main character littered. It was an old movie.”
my penis is huge
where i live, they can fine you 500 bucks for flicking s cigarette out your car window ^_^
I always flick my cigarette butts into the street. But thats because i live in an old Mk1 escort.
what’s a mk1 escort?
First generation Ford Escort. (’69-75, I think)
What message are they trying to convey?
Clint Eastwood litters too much?
Is it just me or does the villan have a poop above his head…
Looks more like a UFO to me.
I was thinking maybe they were shooting a western where the bad guy get abducted! I’d watch that movie. Mixed genre win!
Why is that horse so small? (^_^)
It’s a moth.
You know, there is nothing wrong with the language as such. It just leaves the message a bit unclear.
The grammar and lexis are fine, agreed. But don’t you think it’s so much more… philosophical and poetic than just “Don’t litter”? It really makes you think about the more metaphysical aspects of cleanliness and standards of hygiene as you spit your gum into the gutter.
Provided you haven’t given all your gum to someone else…
Yes, poetic. And there’s even a clarifying illustration.
This would make an awesome t-shirt
This is awesome.
Grammar and syntax are flawless, the basic idea is correct, knowledge of western culture is also almost right (forget the filter anachronism), and yet, seeing this sign you immediately know that “You’re not in Kansas anymore.”
that guy is so cool
I currently live in Japan, and I see these signs all the time at Japan Rail stations. They always make me feel good about being a non-smoker, and being conscietious about my litter. (brag, brag, etc.)
Thanks for the link Karyudo, that made my day. ^_^
So, smugness win?
Yeah, basically. ^_^
I refer to these as “Haiku For Inconsiderate Jerks”.
Dread Pirate? Princess Bride reference win xD
Folks, I can’t see this as any sort of miscue, failure to communicate or humorous miswording.
If you don’t live in an old western movie, don’t flick your cigarette butt in the street.
This one isn’t hard to understand at all. Pard.
OMG
it be hasing a win
So – basically – the only people who don’t “get” this are Americans?
Uh…yeah, looks like it, ‘cuz I don’t get it either. The English is fine. Dumb, but grammatically accurate.
The words and syntax are correct, but the punctuation of the statement is grammatically incorrect. If it was punctuated properly, it would be a single sentence connected with either a comma or an emdash. It is not proper to start a new sentence with a conjunction such as “but.” Also, the sign seems strange to Americans because a similar American sign would be less subtle about the anti-littering message. For example, a similar American PSA would end with the statement “So don’t litter!” or something similar. Also, although old “Westerns” are ABOUT an era before the introduction of filtered cigarettes, many of them were made after filtered cigarettes became common in the 60′s and the directors were not necessarily concerned about “historical accuracy.”
Actually, the “rule” that you cannot start a sentence with a conjunction is, and always has been, bunkum.
But that’s never stopped amateur grammar nazis robbing our language of poetry, beauty and rhythm for the sake of what they think is “logic”.
And that’s all I have to say on that subject.
now i don’t know whether you’re american or what, but i do get the vibe that americans get spoonfed a lot more instructions than what i’m used to/comfortable with.
Americans enjoy proving other people wrong even when their “proof” is debatable, that’s all. It’s our second-favorite pastime after football.
Dude, that one actually makes sense!!
I like the one (#12) that says, “Inhaled. Burned. Thrown away. If it were anything but a cigarette, it would surely be crying.” Nice!
Wait… This is the Engrish site, right?
For a minute there, I thought maybe this was WinBlog or something.
(Is there even a WinBlog?)
Well, whatever. This sign is made of awesome.
What the hell is this even trying to say? Smoking’s not cool unless you’re a cowboy in old movies?
XD I did a report on smoking in Japan last year, and I found this poster as part of my research. There’s something wonderfully hilarious about it.
its nothing about grammar you twats, the meaning is nonsensical!
I saw one similar to this on the JR in Tokyo the other day.
Google “Japanese anti-smoking signs” and go to images. Part of the Japanese anti-smoking effort. I found these years ago and since my work was on nicotine addiction, I loved to add them to my lectures!
urm… this actually makes sense… its saying that in movies its cool for the guy to throw his cigarette on the ground, but these people say that that’s not acceptable.
Still funny the way they asked people not to litter
Oh, I’m so glad to see this one! This was posted on the street I lived on in Yokohama! I’ve seen others online, but this was always my favorite. This whole anti-smoking series is great, and is just as funny and quirky in Japanese as in English.
なつかしい！
So the hero and bad guy are fighting from different timestreams, because they’re fighting on opposite ends of “Long time ago”
long time is long.
he’s so cool!