maybe it’s the manic use of ellipses and exclamation points, but this note makes me very uncomfortable.
says erica in new york city, “as bad as it can get in the ladies’, i’ve been told the men’s bathroom is even worse.”
maybe it’s the manic use of ellipses and exclamation points, but this note makes me very uncomfortable.
says erica in new york city, “as bad as it can get in the ladies’, i’ve been told the men’s bathroom is even worse.”
Tags: "helpful" advice · bathroom · bullet points · comic sans alert · ellipses-crazed · exclamation-point happy! · hygiene · new york · office · spelling and grammar police · toilet
(from an anonymous submitter in maryland.)
Tags: "helpful" advice · exclamation-point happy! · illness · kitchen · maryland · office · spelling and grammar police
from an anonymous submitter in new york city, who explains: “i was out of the country for a week, and when I came back, I found this gem taped to the bathroom mirror….even though I’ve since moved out of the apartment (after she accused me of peeing on the bathroom floor and into the non-existent [...]
Tags: "helpful" advice · bathroom · bathtub · hygiene · new york · roommates · toilet
this note is like the teenager who manages to contain themselves long enough to grudgingly recite a lengthy mandated apology, but then can’t resist turning around and giving the finger afterwards…or the perky flight attendant who finally cracks when the drunk fat guy hits the call button again at the end of a long flight. [...]
Tags: "helpful" advice · bullet points · coffee · etiquette · office · ohio
if you liked “paul gauguin, passive-aggressive artist,” you might enjoy “passive-aggressive vegan grocery cashier: a day in the life,” from the mcsweeney’s archives…or any of the “open letters to people or entities who are unlikely to respond.”
or you might not. perhaps you’re a member of the millennial generation! in that case, you [...]
Tags: "helpful" advice · fiction · tangent time
this exercise in redundancy is brought to us by erika in los angeles. it’s like the note-writer couldn’t decide which tactic would be most effective and just opted for all of the above.
Tags: "helpful" advice · bullet points · excessive underlining · food · guilt trip · highlighter · los angeles · not-so-veiled threats · office · office fridge · pleasantries as afterthought
i agree with katrina in ann arbor — the last “…etc.” bullet point is what makes the sign totally genius. and, apparently, effective.
katrina adds, “our microwave is a pristine fucking sanctum suitable for storing, say, the dead sea scrolls, so maybe people are leaving the shrink wrap on their lean cuisines.”
Tags: "helpful" advice · bullet points · microwave · odor · office
this fiendishly funny note comes to us courtesy of jennifer in philly, who does not condone the theft of bottled water of any kind.
Tags: "helpful" advice · exclamation-point happy! · not-so-veiled threats · office · office fridge · oh snap · stealing · water
cindy and her friend had a falling out. the ex-friend then sent cindy this message on facebook. something tells me this post isn’t going to be the olive branch that brings them back together.
Tags: "helpful" advice · facebook · spelling and grammar police · university
Tags: "helpful" advice · exclamation-point happy! · gym · not-so-veiled threats · shit · toilet
jenny insists this note wasn’t just because the dude wouldn’t take her request for “toxic.” (”the DJ really sucked!”)
Tags: "helpful" advice · excessive underlining · heart · music
i don’t want to oversell this, but the following series of three signs (sent in by a health-club patron who wishes to remain nameless) just became my new all-time favorite. i love so many things about richard g. sells’s first masterpiece below that i don’t even know where to begin.
acts 2 and 3 to come [...]
Tags: "helpful" advice · bathroom · exclamation-point happy! · not-so-veiled threats · p.s. · shit
this lovely petri dish courtesy of ben, who explains: “while living in a house in london with 17 people from all over the world, things become way too green. this had to be done every once in a while in order to remind others not to overpopulate our kitchen with new living organisms.”
Tags: "helpful" advice · dishes · london · roommates
thanks to rachel for bringing to light another key battleground for office passive-aggressives: the thermostat.
click to enlarge.
Tags: "helpful" advice · new york · office · temperature
the visual aid here is genius, and i love the piggyback note. (once two people join in, the whole thing has a tendency to spiral out of control into a massive anonymous bitchfest.)
spotted by steve.
UPDATE: the sign-maker writes in to claim his handiwork! oliver explains:
I was horrified at this state, but I also did [...]
Tags: "helpful" advice · bathroom · office
frank writes, “nice blogs….but i would like to point out that your passive-aggressive notes site
is a complete rip-off of a humor piece i wrote over three years ago for the now-defunct humor magazine jest.”
well played, frank! not only is the piece in question quite humorous indeed, but frank’s use of classic passive-aggressive conventions (the [...]
Tags: "helpful" advice · dishes · fiction · meta · roommates
from an auto shop somewhere between new york and atlantic city…
at first glace, this doesn’t seem to fit the criteria for a true passive-aggressive note — observe the absence of faux niceties like “please” or “thanks!!!”– but the pseudo-helpful clarification (”this means pants + shirts as a single unit…”) help inch it just over the [...]
Tags: "helpful" advice · attire · jersey · office · whiteboard
this card came with a box of homemade mandelbrot from my very own passive-aggressive jewish grandmother.
Tags: "helpful" advice · exclamation-point happy! · family · food