What if everything had a splash of fun?

Taxes, cooking instructions, restroom signage? What if the slightest bit of humor was in everything?

A little light hearted laugh never hurt anyone? What if comedians worked at sign shops? What if stand-up comics worked together with government officials on street signs? Anyone with the slightest bit of humor helped write the instructions for baking a cake?

Or maybe it’s only fun because it isn’t everywhere. We notice humor because it isn’t supposed to be there. This sign for the toilets (in Barneveld, The Netherlands) at a department-type store had me laughing all the way through the door.

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

But everyone’s gotta go at some point, right? It’s just going to happen, no matter what, no questions asked, no big deal. But what if a sign maker just added a little bit of humor to the sign? Or in this case, it’s probably the management of the store. But how did they get approval from the board? Maybe it comes down to company culture? Maybe it’s a bit of lightness on a usually dull subject: standard signs.

But why not? What’s the harm done? Who will not get a kick out this sign? And even if they do, who cares? If they can’t find the humor in this, what can they find humor in? Maybe it’s not for them, maybe it’s for those who would like a bit of a chuckle in their regular day. On the other hand, maybe humor when it’s not expected is exactly what that pessimist needs. Maybe it will find the right moment, just the right angle and joke and sneak in through the crack of possibility and get the slyest of smiles out of even the most determined of serious souls.

It’s worth a try, isn’t it?

I’d like to think that if every person in the world smiled or laughed, joked, chuckled or even almost smiled just a fraction more than they did the day before, the planet would lift a little. It would be the equivalent of the tiniest leak of laughing gas seeping out of cracks in the earth and infecting everybody.

What might you create that’s a bit lighter than you might normally have created? Where could you inject some humor where it’s not normally found? What could the harm be? But the better question is really, how might it lift the spirits even slightly of someone who needs it the most?