I like to read the morning paper–yes, an actual newspaper dropped at my home by a dedicated delivery person sometime around three in the morning–before I start my job from home. I would like to say for the record that, after reading an article this week that made me facepalm, I now know of at least 1500 people on social media who have absolutely no sense of humor.
The sunny shore community of Wildwood, New Jersey, posted on April 1 to make an announcement about their iconic tram cars, which convey visitors along the boardwalk. For ages, the transports of linked cars seating about four people to a row and eight to a section have taken folks for a half-hour ride along the two-miles of boardwalk. Their iconic loudspeaker to pedestrians warns “Watch the tram car, please!”
The announcement included an unnamed source who reported that Wildwood wanted to be more polite with the warning, and so would be revising the ages-old phrase to say, “Excuse me, please. Tram car coming through.”
The post resulted in a deluge of responses in the form of the Facebook characteristic angry emojis, and phone calls to the offices in Wildwood from enraged people who wanted the phrase to stay the way it has always been. The phrase was considered, to one posting individual, “Jersey polite.” Another stated that a warning need not be polite when a large vehicle is bearing down on ignorant strolling folks in flip-flops.
The original phrase is short and sweet, and easy to take heed of along with the occasional bicycle bell ringing. The only other true way to change it would be to reword it to “Please watch the tram car.”
So the offices in Wildwood fielded angry phone-ins which increased their Monday call volume, while social media blew up with complaints from angry readers.
Had they taken a moment to think, they would have been laughing instead of spewing their coffee in outrage. For one thing, does anybody go to extremes to make a polite phrase more polite? Do they also go out of their way to make the warning even longer than the original version? Finally, the post was on April 1, also known to most of us as April Fool’s Day. The whole thing was supposed to be a joke.
Which is why I noted that the nearly 1500 people who clapped back at the post decidedly have no sense of humor. I can imagine these folks keeping pitchforks and torches by their front doors, ready to march on any perceived slight in this world for lack of something better to do. What would’ve happened if Apple had posted on April Fools Day that they were going out of business?
Naturally I have been observing, with increasing distress, the downfall of the human brain in the upcoming generations; nobody seems capable of constructing a meaningful thought, let alone writing it down using proper grammar. We should at least be able to discern humor when it’s in front of us in carefully worded posts on social media. Without the opportunity to laugh, we lose our focus when life becomes serious.
I don’t go to Wildwood, but I remember being nudged out of the way by hearing “Watch the tram car, please” at my back when my family went a time or two in my youth. Perhaps they should use a recording of Reel 2 Reel’s “I Like to Move It” instead.
Just kidding, folks!
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 