Funny, Then It Hits You (8 Photos)

The joke lands first

Seven skeletons with seven different labels. A dream stamped CANCELLED. Tiny businessmen standing in a puddle. Each of these works gets a laugh in the first second, and the point lands a moment later.

More: Stencils That Hit Hard (31 Photos)

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🏷️ “Labels” — By ItSkeletal in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, USA 🇺🇸

Seven plastic skeletons stand in a row under seven words: White, Black, Straight, Gay, Religious, Atheist and Pirate. Take away the words and they are the same skeleton, except the pirate, who is missing a lower leg.

💡 Bone Fact: ItSkeletal is Manny Julio, who builds his skeleton scenes outside his home in Fogelsville. He told an interviewer that he wanted to put his first display up in July but waited until Halloween.

More: ItSkeletal’s Skeleton Street Art Will Make You Laugh—Then Think

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🛑 “Stop Making Stupid People Famous” — By Plastic Jesus in Los Angeles, USA 🇺🇸

No character, no trick, just five red words on a gray pillar by an LA sidewalk. It reads like a wisecrack, and it is hard to argue with. Plastic Jesus now sells the same line on canvas, so the slogan has moved from the sidewalk to living room walls.

💡 Target Fact: The line often gets read as a dig at the Kardashians. Plastic Jesus told The Hollywood Reporter, as quoted by Time, that it is also aimed at us as consumers: without us, there would be no market for them.

More: Plastic Jesus in Los Angeles (6 photos)

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🛋️ A Room Drawn Around a Mattress — By Skid Robot in Los Angeles, USA 🇺🇸

A TV, a window, a dresser and a birdcage, drawn in black lines on bare concrete above a real mattress. The mattress and the bags beside it are real. VICE describes Skid Robot as a Los Angeles artist who paints dreamlike scenes around homeless people.

💡 Street Fact: It started with a thought bubble. NBC Los Angeles reported that his girlfriend inspired him one night to paint a thought bubble full of money over a homeless person, and that he later sold T-shirts to raise money for tents and shelter.

More: Skid Robot: The LA Graffiti Artist Turning Homelessness into a Canvas for Change

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🚫 “Follow Your Dreams” — By Banksy in Boston, USA 🇺🇸

A tired painter with a bucket has just finished the words FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS, and a red CANCELLED stamp sits right across them. Banksy Explained places the piece on Essex Street in Boston’s Chinatown in May 2010. The dream is written by hand. The cancellation looks official.

💡 Place Fact: The Boston Globe found it on the back of the Shabu Shabu restaurant, next to parking space number 32, the same spring Banksy’s film Exit Through the Gift Shop was the top-grossing film at Cambridge’s Kendall Square Cinema. A manager said the owner had no plans to take it down.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsFollow Your Dreams (Cancelled)Banksy · 2010 · Chinatown, Boston, USASix-foot stencilShabu Shabu back wallEssex Street1The Boston Globe described a six-foot stencilled worker with a brush and bucket beside the words “Follow your dreams”, stamped over with a red “Cancelled”.Boston Globe2It went up in May 2010 on the back wall of the Shabu Shabu restaurant on Essex Street, next to parking space 32.Boston Globe201012 MayFlickr photo, cdevers201015 MayBoston Globe reportRead the full file →

More: Banksy? Who Is The Visionary of Street Art? (25 Photos)

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🕵️ “Government Spy” — By The Rebel Bear in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland 🇬🇧

A man in a hat hides behind an open newspaper, a bag on the ground beside him, painted right next to a real cash machine on North Junction Street in Leith. It is the oldest spy joke there is, and people still stand beside him to take out cash. The Rebel Bear told Brooklyn Street Art that the piece is “a comment on the current mass surveillance we are under.”

💡 Paper Fact: Read the newspaper. Edinburgh Live reported that it is called The Government Times, that the spy peers through two holes cut in it, and that it refers to phone records, a snooper’s charter, facial recognition and online profiling. The piece is understood to have appeared on July 28, 2021.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsThe Government TimesThe Rebel Bear · 2021 · Leith, Edinburgh, ScotlandMass surveillanceBeside a cash machineNewspaper headlines1The spy peers through two holes cut in a newspaper called The Government Times, whose lines refer to phone records, facial recognition and online profiling.Edinburgh Live2Grrrrr Inc. sells the image as hand-sprayed prints: an edition of 56 on card and 12 on canvas.Grrrrr Inc.202128 JulReported to have appeared · Edinburgh Live20213 AugArtist's photos and statement published · Brooklyn Street ArtRead the full file →

More: Government Spy – By The Rebel Bear in Edinburgh

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🦈 “Shark-fin Soup” — By Pejac in Tokyo, Japan 🇯🇵

Gray shark fins break through the paving stones of a busy Tokyo street, and nobody looks down. It plays like a cartoon sea monster until you read the title. Pejac told My Modern Met that the anime look is there to camouflage a critique of a much less kind reality: the killing of sharks for their fins.

💡 Bite Fact: Look closely at each fin. Street Art News noted obvious human bites on every one. Pejac told Time Out Tokyo that he put the fins in a square in the middle of Shibuya to show what a shark might feel when threatened by people, not the other way around.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsFin SoupPejac · 2015 · Shibuya, Tokyo, JapanInstallationLast stop of his Asian tourBitten shark fins1Arrested Motion called Fin Soup probably the most provocative and daring piece of Pejac's Tokyo stop.Arrested Motion2My Modern Met quoted Pejac's caption: the anime look is there to camouflage a critique of a reality much less kind.My Modern Met201524 JunReported from Shibuya · Street Art News20152 JulPhotos from the Tokyo stop · Arrested Motion20158 JulCovered in the Japan series · Spoon & Tamago201512 JulArtist's statement published · My Modern Met20156 OctArtist interview · Time Out TokyoRead the full file →

More: Street Art by Pejac – In Tokyo, Japan

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🌊 “Follow the Leaders” — By Isaac Cordal in San Jose, California, USA 🇺🇸

Small cement men in suits stand in a puddle outside a McDonald’s, one holding a briefcase, another already in up to his chin. They look like toys someone forgot in the rain, until you notice the suits. Cordal made the scene in 2013 for his long-running Cement Eclipses project.

💡 Nerd Fact: Cordal’s 2011 Berlin installation The Electoral Campaign, the one the internet calls “Politicians Discussing Global Warming,” was actually part of this same Follow the Leaders series.

More: Collection of Works by Isaac Cordal From 2013

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⌨️ “Keyboard Warrior” — By JPS in Weston-super-Mare, England 🇬🇧

A boy in glasses has a red cape, a sword and a computer keyboard for a shield. JPS posted it in 2018 as a new piece on the Seaton Hotel in Weston. Ready for battle, as long as the battle happens in a comment section.

💡 Word Fact: Cambridge Dictionary defines a keyboard warrior as someone who posts angry messages or likes to get into arguments online. JPS gives the phrase an actual shield.

More: 40 Stunning Street Art By Creative Genius JPS

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