We've all been there: you have a seemingly simple task to do and yet no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to get it right. And while it can be frustrating, it can also lead to some hilarious results. Scroll through for a look at some of the funniest instances of people who had just one job and still messed it up.
New Water Boiling Technique Just Dropped
It's about time to swallow a bitter pill and face the music: Not all of us are predestined to become America's next master chef. That just isn't the be-all-end-all vocation for all of us. Some of us are completely helpless and hopeless in the kitchen, and that's just the way it is. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Nobody is good at everything, and that's what makes things interesting.
We don't want to point any fingers, but we do think it's safe to say that the guy who literally tried to melt two glass cups of water probably has a long way to go until he becomes a kitchen maestro.
Someone Might Want to Google What Anonymous Means
Well, what else can we say but "request denied?" Tom McEldroon may have asked to remain anonymous, but somebody in the writing team had other plans for him. What's incredible about this photograph is not just that they exposed somebody who specifically asked to remain anonymous; that much happens quite often. What's really crazy is that they did it while explicitly stating that he wished to stay nameless and unknown.
Hopefully, this little blunder didn't get anybody into trouble, neither the guy who wished to remain anonymous nor the actual paper. Who knows what kind of chaos ensued right after this was published.
Good Thing Emergencies Are Always Pre-Scheduled
No emergency here? Sure thing, we'll just make sure that the next unforeseeable and sudden life-threatening event happens two blocks down the road, and not, you know, here. Or, maybe, you could just... not leave a big empty space of gaping nothingness where the emergency phone should be? That, too, is an option. Or maybe we could just ask all the robbers and wrongdoers nearby to take their business elsewhere.
On a totally unrelated note, we would like to point out that the fire hydrant in the background looks as though he's holding a sword. That is, in our minds, incredible.
There Are So Many Things Wrong With This, It's Impressive
This photograph is so wrong that it's actually perfect. We don't know how they managed to do it, but the people who made this design got so many things wrong that it somehow became right in its own way. Let's start with the way they misspelled two out of the four words on the cardboard box (Fragile and Upward). But that's not all, no, far from it. There's plenty more.
Somehow, the people who designed this mixed and matched all the different icons and titles, so that glass cup icon meant to signify "Fragile" is over the "Upward" title, while the "Upward" icon was painted over the "Keep Dry" title, and so on. Perfect.
Not a Very Merry Christmas
There's a certain vibe to Christmas that's hard to recreate in any other time of the year - the whole family huddled together in a warm house, safeguarded from the cold, winter weather blasting outside; everyone giving each other gifts as tokens of their appreciation; the special foods. There's just a certain type of magic to Christmas time. That is until one creative gift-giver decides to get real artsy and edgy with his gift wrapping.
We can only hope that the poor people who got this demonic gift managed to look past its ominous wrapping and enjoy the gift for what it was. To that, we say - amen.
Nobody Said Mazes Had to Be Hard
Mazes are usually elaborate labyrinths that instill a sense of disorientation and completely stifle your sense of direction, and getting through them is a test of both your foresight and your patience. Usually, that is; sometimes, the maze is so obvious and telegraphed that it doesn't really put up that much of a challenge at all. That's exactly the case when it comes to the maze in question, as the correct path to take sticks out like a sore thumb.
We wonder what the people who worked on building this maze had in mind when they made it so offensively solvable. Seriously, this maze is so easy that it's kind of insulting.
It's Almost as Though Something Were Missing
So there could be any number of reasonable explanations as to how such a lamentable tragedy could occur. Somebody in the pickle factory may have fumbled the bag; maybe someone in the supply chain got a little hungry and took it out on an unsuspecting pickle jar; maybe this is some sort of experimental, avant-garde pickle art project; heck, maybe somebody just tried this to see if they could get away with it.
We really don't know what caused this, but there's no doubt in our mind that this is truly one of the most distressing supermarket tragedies that have occurred in recent memory.
That's a Pretty Stinky Typo
We're not the most avid of bike riders, but even we could think of a few better things to chain our bike to if their safekeeping was on our minds. Seriously, what kind of person would choose in his right mind to secure his bike to... feces? Yeah, couldn't be us. Obviously, this is just a prime example of typos giving ordinary sentences an outlandish new meaning. And yet, we can't help but laugh.
What the sign probably meant to say was: "Do not secure bikes to fence." Yeah, fence, not feces. On the bright side, that does mean you're free to secure your bike to the fence, given that there's no sign specifying otherwise!
Just... Why?
There are so many things in life that are so easy to get completely wrong. Really, without proper training and the required expertise, most people are liable to get like 90% of all things wrong. Sticking a roll of toilet paper into the toilet paper holder, however, isn't one of those things. That's one of the things that people are generally supposed to get right on the first, maybe second, try.
The person in question, however, got it wrong. We're not sure how they did it, but they did. So, while we're at it, we might as well take a second to appreciate just how wrong they were. It is kind of impressive in a way.
Finally Those Children With Diabetes Will Get What's Coming to Them
Either the person who designed this picket sign has an unfortunate gift for wording things in a hilariously offensive fashion, or he really, really dislikes kids with diabetes for some unknown reason. We're not quite sure what his deal was, and we're not quite sure which noble cause these people were trying to raise money for by condoning violence against children with diabetes, but we do know for a fact is that this sign is hilarious.
Or perhaps what the sign was trying to say was that they should weaponize diabetes to fight non-diabetic children. That's an interesting thought, too. Not sure why anyone would want to do that, though.
One of Those Ideas Nobody Really Thought Through
Wait, don't wheelchairs have the innate ability to fly? Oh, they don't? Well, can't they just jump over the staircase? It's not that big. Oh, they can't? Well, gosh, we're out of ideas then. We get not being wheelchair accessible (not that that's a good thing, but it is, unfortunately, commonplace enough to be inconspicuous), but painting a "wheelchair accessible" sign on a flight of stairs no wheelchair could ever access?
That's straight-up mean! Sure, they probably didn't mean it, but still. One can only imagine what went through the head of the person who had to paint this very paradoxical piece of infrastructure.
No Honor, No Integrity, No Trust, and No Transparency? Cool
By now the image of the "not so bright cop" has become somewhat of a tired cliche, but sometimes even the most worn-out platitudes are true. Not that we're pointing fingers at any specific person, but it is a bit funny that the person who designed the police station put a horizontal line through all the fundamental values of the police force. That design is just a bit, dare we say, suspicious.
Or maybe the sign maker was actually just pulling a fast one on the cops? It could be that the person behind this sign truly knew what he was doing and thought it would be hilarious. If so, he wasn't wrong.
He Might Be Coming on a Bit Too Strong
We know, we know - some people believe that assertiveness and proactiveness are surefire ways to charm and beguile your potential significant other. And yet, there are a few cases when people turn up the assertiveness to eleven. That is, they go just a bit too hard. This sign may be one of those cases, given how it completely disregarded the question of what the woman wants in this situation.
On the other hand, it seems as though it worked pretty well for the guy! The woman in the photo seems incredibly overjoyed to have been proposed to, even if the proposal was more like a statement.
Street Painters Are Getting Real Creative These Days
Here's one project that went totally wrong. Truth be told, this probably is not the painter's fault; it seems what happened was that the painter painted the accessibility sign on seperate blocks that were supposed to come together like puzzle pieces to form a cohesive image, and then some guy just randomly laid them out on the street in no particular order, making for this modern piece of art.
Frankly, we don't hate it. It is pretty creative, and it looks kind of cool. But, we wouldn't be surprised if it caused a bit of trouble for some people.
That's Some Wishful Thinking Right There
Yeah, we're not sure how to break it to the driver, but those safety belts aren't going to be holding literal piles of sand, gravel, or whatever those heaps are made of. They are, after all, composed of countless tiny grains; no belt could ever hope to contain so many minuscule grains. They weren't designed to be able to handle such a task! What this driver needs is a huge jar. Maybe three.
By the time this photograph was taken, the driver probably already lost at least half of the original load strapped to the back. We wonder how much he had left once he finally reached his destination.
Ah, Yes. The Speed of Time
Don't you hate it when a cop pulls you over for going 7:08 PM when the speed limit's clearly 8:09 PM daylight savings time? That's so annoying when that happens. That is if this speed sign displaying the time instead of the actual speed of ongoing traffic were to become the norm. We're not quite sure what going 7:08 pm really means; in fact, we're not sure how one would go about measuring the speed of time.
But could you imagine the world if people actually did that? Like, if people started measuring the speed of certain times? One can just imagine the unforeseen consequences of such a peculiar thing to do.
Great Idea. The Execution Could Use Some Work
Now, if the door were facing the other way around, the cool design on the floor would be accurate in measuring the exact angle of the door, with 0 and 180 signaling the door's closed, and all the other angles showing just how opened the door is. But the door isn't facing the other way, and the design's all wrong, and it's painfully clear that the person who drew it didn't really notice.
Oh well, we guess there are worse crimes in the world than being a bit imperceptive when it comes to door angles. We just hope the person who drew the angles did better on their math test than they did on this job right here.
Not Quite Sure How That's Prevention, Really
Oh, wow. That's pretty dark, isn't it? Technically speaking, they did prevent the person from committing suicide, but that's kind of going by the letter of the law and not its spirit. So basically, task failed successfully? The details of the story are a bit blurry, but it seems as though the whole incident was composed of a myriad of oversights and miscommunications which tragically escalated the level of the violence towards an unsightly ending.
In all seriousness though, this truly is a tragic story with a tragic ending; one that should be avoided at all costs. This story is a reminder of how much work we have left to do when it comes to dealing with mental health.
That Ain't Green
The green button, you say? Yeah, no problem, you mean the huge red button with the label "Green Button" posted on it? Now, why in the world would they go through with putting up that sign if that just meant more confusion. Wouldn't it be better to just throw away the darn thing and make a new, makeshift sign that won't conflate red and green? We think that's a better idea.
Then, on the other hand, we wouldn't have gotten to bear witness to this really weird door-releasing situation. We wonder how many people have just stood in front of that sign, utterly confused.
No Thanks, We'll Pass on That One
Free what photography? Umm... yeah, you can keep that. Not only is this one menacing typo, but it's also a huge red flag: probably not the best idea to let somebody who doesn't know the medical word for "eye" go ahead and tinker with your eyesockets or expose your eyes to sharp flashes of light that could possibly damage your eyesight forever. We'll let the real doctors handle that one.
Now what they actually meant to say was free "retinal" photographs. Alas, too little too late, in this case. We fear the damage is done, and we've already moved on with our lives.
This Hand Sanitizer Is Playing Hard to Get
Some places are better than others, and that statement rings even truer when it comes to the position of hand sanitizers. In case you were wondering, sliding doors fit tightly in the bottom tier of surfaces on which hand sanitizers should be installed along with such other inconvenient places as lakes, beehives, and more. Seriously though, what kind of disorientating demon possessed the people behind this completely odd hand sanitizer placement?
If anyone were to try to sanitize his hand, he would immediately find out, much to his dismay, that the sliding door would open and the hand sanitizer would travel sideways along with it.
Looks Like We Finally Found Someone to Present the News
Finally. We've scoured the lands; we've sent our scouts to scavenge through the entire country in search of any semblance of a lead; we've thought long and hard in contemplative introspection, and finally we've done it - we found somebody to present the news. It's about time, really. We've had all this news going on for so long with nobody to present it. Now we've just got to make up for all the lost time.
Despite what the title says, it's obvious that that isn't quite what the news team had in mind. What they meant to say was that the photographed person was the first presenter to have a moko kauae, a traditional Maori chin tattoo.
These Lights Are Definitely Taking the Road Not Taken
Now that's what we call off the beaten path. Some people may dare call this lighting placement weird, impractical, or perhaps even clumsy or negligent. Not us. To us, this light placement is creative, bold, striking, and unique. It is, to sum it up, an intriguing work of art that challenges our standard perception of lightbulbs and office lighting. Nothing like decorating your workspace with great works of unique art.
We can only imagine what the person who installed these lights thought right after he (almost) lined them up. Was he overcome with pride at the sight of his marvelous creation? We sure hope he was.
That's Why You Need Commas, Folks
Yet another reminder that the only thing holding us together as a society and keeping us from collapsing into ourselves and regressing into wild anarchy is actually proper grammar. Okay, maybe that's going just a bit too far, but this is definitely an example of the sorts of miscommunications that could happen if we were to neglect our grammatical and punctuational duties. The world would be in total chaos, we say - chaos!
We just hope the message got through to whoever it was meant for. This kind of miscommunication could cause some serious trouble if it got into the wrong hands. Yikes.
Woo! Funeral! Sounds Lit
There are few ways to appropriately spread the word of someone's passing and guide the mourners to the location of the funeral, without making it seem like a huge party or some kind of joyous social gathering. It is of our humble opinion that using a gigantic, blue, floating stick man probably isn't one of them. Like, there just had to be a better way than the stick man. Come on.
But you never know what kind of circumstances lead to these kinds of things; maybe the person in question specifically stated that he wanted one of these floating stick men to guide people to his funeral in his will.
A Sink That Doubles as a Standing Bidet
Look, in our minds, this is not poor design. Far from it, this is something much worse - what it really is, is some kind of an elaborate prank played on unsuspecting victims in dire need of clean hands, or perhaps it's a subtle torture device meant to ruin innocent people's day. Whatever it is, it is truly a menace to society and an environmental hazard that should be dispatched swiftly.
Seriously, imagine just going about your day, heading to wash your hands, and suddenly finding yourself bombarded with a hefty spray of water aimed from point-blank range straight at your thigh. That's awful.
We've Never Seen Somebody So Happy to Break Bad News
There is an incredibly minuscule amount of situations in which this card would be considered appropriate and the card-giver wouldn't be instantly shown the door. Look at that crab. He is so unbelievably happy to announce some unlucky person's potentially fatal illness. That's wild. Okay, so we know that the message wasn't intended to celebrate someone's illness but rather a baby born during Cancer season, hence the astrology sign for a crab.
But it's pretty safe to say that message got a bit lost amongst the funny wording. Maybe a better message would've been "Congratulations, You Have a Cancer Baby," although even that sounds a bit strange.
It's Like They Say: "Having Problems? Sucks For You"
Anybody who's ever installed pretty much anything would tell you that it isn't easy; things get messy pretty quickly and nothing ever goes exactly as you had planned it. That's why it's always great to know that you can get some technical support for whatever you're trying to do. Unfortunately, the people in question here are pretty much on their own, by the looks of things, and we can only hope that they managed to get by.
We know that this was probably an innocent mistake and that the person who wrote the technical guide meant to actually have a support line ready and waiting, and yet, one can't help but feel as though they're kinda teasing the poor person having difficulties installing whatever this was supposed to be.
Nothing Like Some Boneless Ham for Chanukah
There are quite a few things we would like to point out about this photograph, so we're going to be extra clinical about it: First of all, there's the obvious fact that most people celebrating Chanukah are of the Jewish faith, meaning that they don't eat ham, making the whole thing pointless. Second, isn't ham always boneless? Like, has anyone ever tried a ham saturated with bones? We've never tried one of those.
Finally, what kind of ham (actually, forget the ham, what kind of food) is delicious for a certain holiday? Like, if it tastes good then it tastes good whenever, right?
Maybe It Will Be Third Times the Charm...
Spelling is a process incredibly prone to human error; there's just not enough memory space in our small brains to get down the exact lettering of each and every word we know. That's why we'd never blame someone for misspelling a word, no matter how basic or frequently used that word is. That is, until the person makes the same mistake twice in a row. That's just totally inexcusable in our book.
Seriously, this spelling error doesn't even make phonological sense; it's just plainly obvious that the word "school" isn't spelled "scohol". Despite sharing the exact same letters, those two words are barely similar.
We Feel Bad for Whoever Cleaned Up That Accident
Oh, man. That's definitely a certain kind of accident. You don't see one of those accidents every day, do you? We do feel kinda bad for the people who had that accident, too. This is one of those cases in which an unfortunate typo made a standard sign become something much greater and way funnier. People should misspell things like this more often; it would make the world a funnier place.
What we truly love about this photograph is how everyone's just strolling nonchalantly around the sign, paying it no mind, as if it wasn't even there. That's some classic stuff right there.
A "Back to School" Display Like No Other
Hey, those aren't pencils. In fact, they're not pens, either! Something very fishy is going on. Very fishy. Seriously though, this little blunder in design does make for a funny hypothetical: one could only imagine all of the kids going to school with their backpacks filled to the brim with adult beverages. Well, it's only hypothetically funny. In reality, that wouldn't be funny at all. It would probably end very seriously, in fact.
So here's to hoping that no parent accidentally got confused and thought these were just cool, hip designs for water bottles and got one for his kid, right? Yeah, that probably didn't happen.
Welcome to Alphabet City, Where People Misuse the Alphabet
The best part of this photo is that it was taken in Alphabet City. Out of all the places such a glaring typo could happen - Alphabet City? Really? Couldn't they find somewhere less ironic to misuse the alphabet? What really strikes us, though, besides the aforementioned irony, is how the person who spray-painted the lettering onto the roads did it time and time again while not realizing (or perhaps realizing but not caring) that he was painting it all wrong.
Well, it does give a whole new meaning to the name Alphabet City, we guess. This could become some kind of touristy thing; some unique characteristic of the neighborhood that could attract visitors. Just throwing it out there.
And Suddenly, We're Not That Hungry Anymore
Aww, man. Not Pop-Tarts. Why did they have to fumble the labeling of Pop-Tarts? Why ruin such an innocent and sacred thing with such profane language? Come on supermarket people, you have got to do better than this. We're talking about the preservation of American culture here; Pop-Tarts are just off-limits in our book. Nevertheless, this typo probably wouldn't stop us from buying a pack or three of these bad boys if we were seriously craving them.
That craving has been happening a little bit too often recently. Maybe they've added some new ingredients to the tried and true Pop-Tart formula. Maybe the photographed title isn't as wrong as we think it is... Nah, no way. We're just being paranoid. Or are we?
Mosaic Tiles Usually Make Amazing Patterns When Put Together. Usually
Now, this is what we call ingenuity - the people who put together the floorboards of this room definitely utilized their creative freedom to the utmost, and just randomly assorted all the different floorboards in no particular order instead of making them all line up. Sure, some people may have preferred a regular mosaic floorboard pattern, but we appreciate the people who are responsible for this floor's creative instincts. It's uniqueness makes it shine.
It's a no-brainer for us. One could think of it like this: what's better - a generic mosaic pattern you could probably find in countless other homes, or a completely outlandish work of floor art?
In Case You're Wondering, That's 792 Days
Umm, not that we're trying to knock this watch's ability to accurately measure steps and the lack thereof, but we're pretty sure this guy didn't idly sit by for 792 days. That is, after all, two years, two months, and three days. Yeah, so unless this guy was in a coma or something, we're pretty sure he "tried some stretches or a walk." Or maybe the watch was just forgotten somewhere for all that time.
That's the thing with sport-watches and other pieces of technology that measure your every movement - they have a way of making you feel guilty about being lazy and binging Netflix instead of being physically active.
Wouldn't Want to Be There When the Heating's Switched On
Isn't this, like, some kind of safety hazard waiting to happen? Some kind of lamentable tragedy that could easily be avoided? We don't know; we're no experts when it comes to heating and general technical stuff, but that does seem kinda suspicious. We definitely wouldn't trust it, and we wouldn't want to be there in that room when the heating's switched on. Yeah, we'll take a raincheck on that one.
This is why central heating's just so much better; no need to deal with all that technical, life-threatening wiring. Or you could just stick to the old sweater and blanket strategy and forget about the advent of modern heating systems.
Lesson Learned: Life Is Full of Dead Ends
This is not just a poorly done maze that leaves the person trying to get through it with absolutely no way of getting to the other side of this monstrous labyrinth; no, it's much more. What this really is, is a valuable life lesson in the shape of a cute children's game. What could that lesson be, you ask? Well, young grasshopper, this lesson is clearly best learned through experience.
But if you're really dying to know, what this maze is trying to show us is that life is full of dead ends and literally nothing can be trusted. Yeah, have fun sleeping through that piece of wisdom.
This Is Somehow Both Poor Design and Actually Really Cool
No, that is not a poorly placed floortile sticking out like a sore thumb in what otherwise could have been a perfectly ordered and run-of-the-mill carpet design; that's a whole work of art right there. Like, come on. You can't say that it doesn't look cool. Well, you could say it, but we wouldn't believe you. Still, somebody took the liberty of doing whatever he wanted with this floorboard, and we respect that.
On a completely unrelated note: that carpet design is one of the most nostalgic designs we've ever seen. It looks as though it were transported in time and space from a 2006 bowling alley. Cool stuff.
Yeah, Why Would A Therapist Provide Therapy?
So either this school therapist was on some kind of strike or he just flat-out didn't know what to do with that kind of information, because helping a patient deal with grief definitely sounds like something that's included in the job description. Maybe this therapist specializes in talking about career-related issues, and felt as though this was totally out of his area of expertise. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill therapist, though.
The situation may be a tad bit more complicated than it seems, though. Perhaps the school therapist was just a guidance counselor and not a licensed therapist, and therefore felt uneasy helping out with such an issue.