Funny Signs (8 Photos)

The words are only the beginning.

An invisible performer leaves only his flip-flops. Cookie Monster appears beneath a much-repeated line, while a sleeping bat turns a bookstore note into a real warning. Each sign gets better once the whole scene comes into view.

More: Funny Signs (20 Photos)

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👣 Invisible Naked Man With Flip-Flops — Artist Unknown in Copenhagen, Denmark 🇩🇰

Spotted in Copenhagen, the “performer” is nowhere to be seen. A pair of flip-flops sits on a covered stool beside a cardboard sign and a plastic tray for coins. That is the whole act.

💡 Nerd Fact: Copenhagen allows considerate street performances on pedestrian streets and squares without permission, but groups of more than three need a permit. The city’s official guidance also says Danish law does not permit performers to collect money.

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🍪 Time of Monsters — Artist Unknown in New York City, USA 🇺🇸

@radicalgraffiti shared the poster from New York City. It pairs “Now Is the Time of Monsters” with Cookie Monster. The wording is widely attributed to Antonio Gramsci, but the “monsters” ending is a later paraphrase and does not appear in his Prison Notebooks.

💡 Nerd Fact: The Smithsonian traces Cookie Monster back to the “Wheel Stealer,” a character Jim Henson created for a Canadian snack-food commercial in 1966. He gained his cookie obsession and familiar name only after reaching Sesame Street.

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🦇 Sleeping Bat Warning — At The Next Page in Calgary, Canada 🇨🇦

The handwritten note asks visitors to open the door carefully because a bat is sleeping on it. Look to the left and there it is, clinging to the wooden frame at The Next Page, 1217A 9 Avenue SE. CTV News reported that the little brown myotis was too cold to fly; the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation later rescued it and found it healthy. See the full story and more photos.

💡 Nerd Fact: Canada’s federal recovery strategy records that little brown myotis bats weigh just 7–9 grams, yet some individuals live for more than 30 years.

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🐴 No Don Quixote Zone — At Dudutki Museum Complex in Belarus 🇧🇾

A rider with a lance is crossed out, with the real Dudutki windmill directly behind it. The museum says the 14-meter mill was built in 1903–05 and moved to Dudutki in 1992. It is hard to imagine a more specific place for the sign. See all three photos of the sign.

💡 Nerd Fact: In Chapter VIII, a windmill’s sail breaks Don Quixote’s lance, after which he insists that the enchanter Frestón transformed the giants into windmills to deny him the glory of victory.

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🎮 Sonic the Hedgehog — By Pappas Pärlor in Sweden 🇸🇪

Sonic running around a roundabout sign just makes sense. Swedish artist Johan Karlgren works under the name Pappas Pärlor. He made the figure from fuse beads and placed it directly on the arrows. More: Pappas Pärlor’s Perler Bead Street Takeover.

💡 Nerd Fact: The name Pappas Pärlor translates as “Dad’s Beads.” Karlgren began using fuse beads while doing crafts with his daughter in Motala and later turned the activity into his full-time work.

🔗 Follow Pappas Pärlor on Instagram

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🦈 Great Wheat Sharks — By Anne Melady near Dublin, Ontario, Canada 🇨🇦

Three of the installation’s four plywood fins cut through the wheat beside a roadside warning: “Please Do Not Feed the Sharks.” Farmtario reported that Anne Melady drew the fins herself, while neighbors helped cut them and mount them on brackets that let them turn in the wind. More: Please Do Not Feed the Great Wheat Sharks.

💡 Nerd Fact: After the wheat was harvested, Melady moved the fins into a tributary of the Bayfield River behind her home.

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🐈 Watch Out for Jumping Cats — Kitakami, Iwate, Japan 🇯🇵

The Japanese text, ネコ飛出し注意, means “Caution: cats may dart out.” A Reddit translation thread identifies this example beside Prefectural Route 14 in Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture. The three silhouettes make the practical warning look much more airborne. Photo by @houchouzamurai.

💡 Nerd Fact: This is part of a broader Japanese roadside tradition. Shiga Prefecture says the child-shaped tobidashi-bōya signs originated in Higashiōmi and are now used across Japan as traffic-safety symbols.

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🐑 Jumping Sheep — By Clet Abraham on Rue Rodier, Paris, France 🇫🇷

Clet Abraham turns the no-entry sign’s white bar into a fence for three sheep. Photographer meuh1246 documented the sign on Rue Rodier in Paris’s 9th arrondissement. More: Street-sign art by Clet in France.

💡 Nerd Fact: Before he began altering street signs, Abraham had worked as a painter for 20 years without receiving a call from a newspaper. He told CBS News that his first sticker brought one within two days.

🔗 Follow Clet Abraham on Instagram