Confessions of a FAIL Blog Addict

It's supposed to be a scary word. Something you fear in everyday life. Unless, of course, it's somebody else's failure.

Then it's just funny.

That's why I and thousands of other people love FAIL Blogs.

There's just a twinge of guilt after I laugh at a picture of a Dairy Queen sign that says: "Scream Until Daddy Stops." Child abuse/molestation IS NOT funny. But the sign is, because someone (who probably thought they were very clever) failed to see that the sign could be read in another, much more twisted way. The image of that guy, who thought it was a great idea and then carried it out is what makes me laugh so so hard.

What makes me laugh even harder is when I know more than one person was involved and each person let the thing slip by them. That's why I love corporate or institutional fails, like this picture of a door to nowhere http://failblog.org/2008/09/25/door-fail-2

The clincher is it's the Civil Engineering building at a University.

FAIL blog has even changed language, at least on their own boards and for people familiar with them (much like LOL Cats). A thing isn't a failure, it's a fail. Fail can be used like a noun. As is in "Look at that fail." Or "Fails make me laugh." It's not correct English, but it changes the way you look at things-especially your own fails.

Some of the posts leave you wondering. How can someone fail that completely? It's like they were actively trying to fail, as in this picture http://failblog.org/2008/09/26/road-fail

Or this one, http://failblog.org/2008/09/25/meat-snack-fail in which a display of condoms is labeled-Meat Snacks.

I like showing FAIL blog to any friend who comes over. It's mostly because not all the fails are obvious at first glance. I had one friend who laughed at all the other fails and then got to this one http://failblog.org/2008/09/24/rivet-fail and had his own fail. He studied it for a full three minutes but couldn't figure out what was funny. (The rivets on this bus ad are unfortunately placed where nipple might be).

There's an entire FAIL blog devoted just to English language fails http://www.englishfailblog.com/ Some of the flubs are just Engrish problems, wherein foreigners try to translate or write English. (Check out this fail of something called the Bitch Festival http://www.englishfailblog.com/2008/09/11/a-bizarre-summer-festival/#comments )

The world is filled with stupid people. This is not a reason to lament. Rather it's an opportunity to laugh. And who knows, after you've seen how far other people's failures can go, maybe you'll be willing to look at your own with more humor and perspective.