It’s National Absurdity Day today. The goal of this day, celebrated every year on November 20, is to celebrate the absurd. With that in mind, today’s Simple Living Sunday post has 7 examples of absurdities I’ve seen lately. I hope they’ll make you laugh or, at the very least, roll your eyes and smile. Because, let’s face it, we could all use a reason to smile.
Never underestimate the healing power of silliness and absurdity.
Steve Maraboli
Three simple pleasures and highlights
Continuing my practice of celebrating the simple things in life, here are three simple pleasures and highlights of the last week.
- After my dental surgery last week, I was very grateful for the large batches of homemade soup that I had made ahead and stored in the freezer.
- On Tuesday, I spent the day at our sales conference. It was great to see colleagues that I haven’t seen in person for almost three years.
- The coleus plants that I brought indoors from my garden are thriving on our sunny front window ledge. It’s nice to have a little bit of outdoors indoors at this time of year.
This week’s simple living focus: National Absurdity Day
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines absurd as “Extremely silly or ridiculous”. So, National Absurdity Day is a day to celebrate the ridiculous—those things that just make you shake your head. It originated with the absurdist movement (yes, there really is such a thing) in the post World War II era, but has morphed into a day just to be silly and have fun.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about the value of laughter and humour. In Why you need to laugh today, I wrote about the health benefits of laughter and shared 10 ways to add more laughter to your life. Then, in an earlier Simple Living Sunday post, I discussed why laughter really is the best medicine.
So, with a goal of making you smile, I’ve chosen 7 things I’ve seen or heard lately that I think are just plain silly.
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7 silly things I’ve seen and heard
Can I put these ice cube trays in the freezer?
I couldn’t help but smile when I took a close look at the package of ice cube trays that I bought. Now, I understand why they’d need to state that they’re dishwasher safe, but freezer safe? I would expect nothing less!
Hey! Someone stole the chives and butter from my potato bag!
I spotted this warning on a bag of potatoes beside the picture of a steaming baked potato garnished with butter and chives: “Suggested serving: package does not include chives or butter.”
Would anyone really expect to find butter and chives inside the bag? If we must state the obvious, I wonder why they didn’t also state that the potatoes in the bag aren’t pre-baked like the one in the picture.
Campfire not included?
Is there anything more fun than making smores around the campfire in summertime? A couple of years ago, I bought a PC Smores kit and was puzzled to see “Campfire not included” on the box. (I wish I had taken a picture at the time but I do remember us laughing at the absurdity of that statement.)
Perhaps the original wording was an attempt at humour, but I noticed the picture of the campfire has been removed from the package, and it now simply says “Perfect for campfires”. I suspect they had customers complain about the lack of campfire in the box.
Why can’t Bell filter out scam emails from Bell?
I get dozens of spam and scam emails every day. I suppose it would be nearly impossible for my Internet provider to filter them all out. But this one that landed in my Inbox this week really made me chuckle.
I had to wonder why Bell wouldn’t be able to spot and filter a scam email that supposedly came from their own company.
Harmful if swallowed
Many of the silly, and sometimes tragic, TikTok trends really do make me shake my head. After hearing about people getting sick and dying from eating Tide Pods, I shouldn’t really be surprised to see a “harmful if swallowed” warning on the package. But really—aren’t some things just common sense?
A kiddie pool in a hotel room
While we’re on the subject of common sense, can you imagine anyone putting a kiddie pool full of water in a hotel room and letting their kids play in it? That’s exactly what some guests at the hotel my older daughter worked at during the summer did. I have to wonder what they do at home.
Things people do to get a refund
Finally, I’m always amazed at the things customers at the supermarket where my younger daughter works will do to get a refund. One of my favourite stories is the customer who brought in a foil pie plate and cherry pit, wanting a refund because they found a cherry pit in their pie. They said the pie was delicious but still wanted their money back.
The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning.
Albert Camus
That’s all I have for today. I’m going to start a new list for next year because silly and absurd things are all around us.
Let’s keep the National Absurdity Day celebration going. Drop me a comment below with your examples of extremely silly or ridiculous things you’ve heard of.
hahaha you can just tell that someone complained about the missing butter and chives and thus, now there’s a disclaimer lol lucky for us 🙂 lol
I know. Seriously? Common sense really is rare and precious…and not common at all. LOL
HIllarious! I bought the same box of Graham crackers but without the campfire! Oh, boy! The kiddies pool and a cherry pit story are so absurd it borders on unbelievably dumb! Ah, the world we live in!
Ha ha. It is hard to believe the things people try to do. I will miss the stories when Colleen leaves her job at the supermarket.
This latest post really made me chuckle, Michelle!
I once bought a packet of crisps that had instructions showing me how to eat them. I also giggle at the countless ‘not for pregnant women’ signs on packaging – such as chainsaws. Maybe we do things differently here in England!
Ha ha. I think I was born knowing how to eat crisps…especially salt & vinegar flavoured! As for the chainsaws, hormones do sometimes get the better of us when we’re pregnant so keeping us away from chainsaws might not be a bad idea. LOL Thanks for dropping by Joey!
On packaging is a prime source for absurd warnings but had to be included because somebody had no common sense.
Thank for the chuckles.
That’s so true. I always say common sense isn’t very common. Enjoy your Sunday!
To add my 5 cents : in the gym club I go, there is a sign saying – it’s forbidden to dye your hair -. If they put it, it’s because they found someone doing that. People are funny and sometimes they don’t use their common sense (to some extent they don’t think either.).
Oh my goodness. Who would do that? You really have to wonder. Thanks for adding to the conversation Cristiana. Have a wonderful Sunday!
Those are the silliest examples I’ve seen in a while. I’ll try to find some more today!
Thanks Kim. One of my kids’ favourite books when they were small was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. One of the lines in that book is “Funny things are everywhere.” It’s true.
Yes it is, like the Dounts sign back home which should have said donuts!
LOL. I guess the sign maker didn’t have a proofreader. We often comment on that when we watch the news. So many spelling errors in the on-screen graphics and captions.
Yes! I always notice that!