Receding hairlines, going with the flow, and row, row row ya boat – humour among the disaster

Everyone has had a tough time during these floods, whether it be getting food, going to work, being with loved ones sometimes separated by a submerged bridge, and even worse, some people have lost everything they own.

But in amongst the gloom and despair and flood stories, there has also been some much needed humour in the shape of the big truck-mounted LED signs as you approach the flooded North Richmond Bridge.

Every day since the bridge was closed the truck drivers with a sense of humour have turned off the rather dry BRIDGE IS CLOSED sign in favour of several different humorous signs.

YEP, ITS STILL SHUT followed by ‘GO WITH THE FLOW’, was one of the earlier ones.

One lady did comment on Facebook that she should have put her glasses on first because she thought it said IT’S STILL SHIT, which someone said was also true.

One morning, the truck had GUNNA on its sign first, followed a moment later by NEED A BIGGER BOAT.

Other crowd pleasers – and a whole online crowd has come together to applaud the signs and hang out for the next day’s – are ROW ROW ROW YA BOAT, and when the water started to go down, RECEDING LIKE A HAIRLINE.

Another morning when the water was still high, the sign read NO ONE’S PULLED THE PLUG YET.

“It’s been the only thing keeping everyone smiling over here,” resident Kate Maree told the Post.

But now the humour has had to be bottled up – the comedians in the trucks have apparently been told by their bosses not to stop taking the proverbial and to stop putting the funny signs up. They need to be serious, and show some respect.

That’s not very funny…

Well, yes, the floods are certainly no laughing matter, but don’t we all deserve a laugh, a release, a bit of humour to help get us all through this?

Facebook users certainly think so. When we put up a post about this, we were flooded with comments.

Lee Shrimpton said: “When faced with unprecedented disaster after disaster these signs gave locals a smile & a laugh in these bleak times. Banning the signs & their witty comments shows a total lack of compassion, humour & empathy by these ‘bosses’. Keep the signs up!!”

Kristal Power said: “Oh that sucks laughter and a bit of fun is what we need in this situation. And I bet more people actually paid attention to the signs and their messages.”

Maureen Lewis said: “I think this humour is very clever and really much appreciated by most people….. we need to smile, it lifts our spirits.”

We’ve called Mouchel Downer who we believe run the trucks, and also called Downer head office and left messages, but have not had a reply. If we do, we will add to the story.

We always want to correctly credit people for their pictures. Because these ones have been shared around so much online it’s hard to know who originally took some of them. Let us know which ones you took and we will make sure you are credited here for the work – thanks.

As you’re here…

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