History Main / RulesOfTheRoad

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' did this with "Cheese Crossing" and "Slow Children Playing" signs.

* ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'' has a series of signs of upcoming curves, each increasingly twisty and ridiculous. Followed by falling rocks. This scene is noted for SpecialEffectsFailure, as you can see the signs moving along a track toward the camera.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

* [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Wile E. Coyote]] would frequently attempt to utilize these in his pursuit of the Road Runner. Unfortunately for him, Road Runners can't read.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984'', Fozzie has an ImagineSpot about being in a city of chickens. At a crosswalk, the stop sign changes from "Don't Walk" to "Cluck", and all the chickens start squawking. Fozzie just says "Oh, well" and joins in.

* [[http://www.roadfan.com/dtclev.html#dm Dead Man's Curve,]] on I-90 in Cleveland, Ohio. Several large signs showing a sharp 90-degree-turn arrow, and signs all but screaming for you to slow down to 35...leading up to one of the sharpest curves on an Interstate highway.

** Travel tip- when the State of Vermont puts a sign up saying FROST HEAVE, the frost heave will be ''much'' larger than average.

* Speed limits in general - it is considered good etiquette to drive as close to the speed limit as conditions allow.

** Also, polar bear crossings. [[http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a102/danukedev/isbjornskilt.jpg Applies to all Svalbard.]]

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1986'', Fozzie has an ImagineSpot about being in a city of chickens. At a crosswalk, the stop sign changes from "Don't Walk" to "Cluck", and all the chickens start squawking. Fozzie just says "Oh, well" and joins in.

* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'': Garfield and Odie walk up to a crosswalk, and Garfield stops Odie. He points up to the "Don't Walk" sign posted on the signpost and tells Odie he must always obey the signs. Then the sign changes to "Bark". Garfield is confused, but Odie obeys until it displays "Don't Bark". Then it displays "Tango". The two then dance across the crosswalk, with Garfield commenting that he doesn't understand it, but at least he's not getting a ticket.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': SCP-1047 is a collection of anomalous road signs that if placed in a room indoors with a suitable concentration of carbon dioxide will forcibly apply effects based on their type to anyone in the room.

* The cover of a paperback collection of ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'' strips famously featured a [[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391250549l/2349739.jpg "Dip in Road" sign]]. Sure enough...

* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_390_32-alternate-interpretations-common-warning-signs/ 32 Alternate Interpretations of Common Warning Signs]]

* ''ComicStrip/{{Conchy}}}'': When Oom Paul finds himself hemmed in by a No Loitering sign, a One Way sign, and a No Entry sign, he looks annoyed and then flaps his arms and flies off.

* Subverted in the ''SamAndMax'' episodes. They remark the "One way" sign outside their office is the "least obeyed street sign in the country".

* The superhero parody game ''Stuperpowers'' includes this as a power a player can hvae: being able to make anything written on a road sign physically happen.

* ''GarfieldAndFriends'': Garfield and Odie walk up to a crosswalk, and Garfield stops Odie. He points up to the "Don't Walk" sign posted on the signpost and tells Odie he must always obey the signs. Then the sign changes to "Bark". Garfield is confused, but Odie obeys until it displays "Don't Bark". Then it displays "Tango". The two then dance across the crosswalk, with Garfield commenting that he doesn't understand it, but at least he's not getting a ticket.

In a rare version people who are either GenreSavvy or extremely horror-movie tier violent will disregard or kill the TooDumbToLive people who are enforcing idiotically vandalised signs. Often leads to jokes regarding the "Slow Children Playing" sign.

** The band pass a sign that reads "Loop Exit" just before entering a 360-degree vertical loop in the road.
** They also comes upon a sign in the road depicting an irate moose. You shouldn't be surprised when the camera pans up to show a moose, but you might be surprised that it's hundreds of feet tall.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' once featured a characteristically bizarre version in which the signs announced "giant clams", "cheese graters" and, horror of horrors, [[EdutainmentShow "EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION"]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'', many of the times DickDastardlyStopsToCheat, it involves him flipping a directional sign so the arrow points in the other direction. Or he yanks a real road sign out of the ground so the others will miss the turn, or changes a 35 mph speed limit sign to read 85 mph. This one is oft imitated in other cartoons where there's WackyRacing.

** The band pass a sign that reads "Loop Exit" just before entering a 360-degree loop in the road.

''In fiction, road signs mean '''''exactly''''' what they say'': If the speed limit sign says 250, you had better be doing 250. If a yellow caution sign warns of an impenetrable snarl of an intersection, a 360-degree vertical loop, or a moose, guess what you're about to see?

* The cover of a paperback collection of ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'' strips famously featured a [[http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100308665/dip-in-road-johnny-hart-paperback-cover-art.jpg "Dip in Road" sign]]. Sure enough...

* Invoked in the short story "Absolute Limits", in which frustrated government scientists note that everyone on the highway always breaks the speed limit--so they have the speed limit on that stretch [[FasterThanLightTravel set to the speed of light]].

* [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenamontanus/sets/72157594323393196/ This link.]]

* In the obligatory ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces''-styled episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheWuzzles'', one of Crock's myriad (backfiring) attempts to cheat involves doctoring an ordinary "Speed Limit 55 MPH" sign to read "Speed Limit ''155'' MPH". Rhinokey sees the sign and dutifully obeys it, but when Crock and his goons try to follow, traffic cop Eagle Beagle gives them a ticket for ''driving too slow''.
** Special note: this would fall under GenreBlindness, too. The scheme was to get Rhinokey arrested for speeding.

* Back in the 1980s, the State Highway department office in San Antonio, Texas, posted exact-figure speed limit signs on several freeway exits about town. Instead of being rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 mph, they'd say "18" or "17" or what have you. The phenomenon attracted a lot of attention statewide, as well as a few national outlets. Sadly, whoever it was that posted the signs was replaced with a multiple-of-5 guy and the exact signs were taken down years ago

!!Examples

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'' has a series of signs of upcoming curves, each increasingly twisty and ridiculous. Followed by falling rocks.
** This scene is noted for SpecialEffectsFailure, as you can see the signs moving along a track toward the camera.
* One of the ''Film/CannonballRun'' films showed a racer sticking numbers to a speed limit sign, changing it from 55 mph to 155 mph
** They were driving a Lamborghini. So yeah...
* ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'' has a map that says that there's a fork in the road. Sure, the road branches into two, but there's also a GIANT fork in the road! (which is apparently a real landmark)
-->'''Kermit:''' Hey Fozzie, I want you to turn left if you come to a fork in the road.\\
'''Fozzie:''' Yessir, turn left at the fork in the road... Kermit!\\
''[They literally turn at a giant fork in the road]''\\
'''Kermit:''' I don't believe it.
* ''National Lampoon's When Nature Calls'' has, in succession, "Bear Left" (with a bear on the sign's left), "Bear Right" (same thing but reversed), and "[[{{Fanservice}} Bare Breasts]]" (ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin).

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

[[folder: Music]]
* In the video for the ''Music/{{Gorillaz}}'' song "19/2000", the band comes upon a sign in the road depicting an irate moose. You shouldn't be surprised when the camera pans up to show a moose, but you might be surprised that it's hundreds of feet tall.
** Also, they pass a sign that reads "Loop Exit" just before entering a 360-degree loop in the road.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* The cover of a paperback collection of ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'' strips famously featured a [[http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100308665/dip-in-road-johnny-hart-paperback-cover-art.jpg "Dip in Road" sign]]. Sure enough...
* One ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' cartoon had a woman looking at a road sign and warning her driver about "cattle dancing." This activity is depicted on the sign and apparent on the road directly in front of the car.
* In one ''Belvedere'' strip a nearby sign says "Quiet: Hospital Zone." Belvedere, who's chasing a car, holds up a sign that says "Arf arf arf."

[[folder:Web Original]]

->'''Alfred Pennyworth:''' When you told me your grand plan for saving Gotham, the only thing that stopped me from calling the men in white coats was when you said that it wasn't about thrill-seeking.\\
'''Bruce Wayne:''' It's not.\\
'''Alfred Pennyworth:''' What would you call ''that''? ''[points to a breaking news report showing a helicopter shot of the Batmobile being chased down the freeway by police cars]''\\
'''Bruce Wayne:''' ''[as he fixes his tie]'' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Damn good television.]]\\
'''Alfred Pennyworth:''' It's a miracle no one was killed.\\
'''Bruce Wayne:''' Didn't have time to observe the rules of the road, Alfred.
-->-- ''Film/BatmanBegins''

Often a version of a VisualPun. See also CantYouReadTheSign.

* [[http://www.roadfan.com/dtclev.html#dm Dead Man's Curve]], on I-90 in Cleveland, Ohio. Several large signs showing a sharp 90-degree-turn arrow, and signs all but screaming for you to slow down to 35...leading up to one of the sharpest curves on an Interstate highway.

* Seen near British Army training grounds: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tank-Crossing.jpg tank crossings]].
* Similarly, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Magic_Roundabout_Schild_db.jpg magic roundabout]]. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer No, that is not a Photoshop,]] they're called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_junction ring junctions]] and the Highways Agency built about six of them before it became obvious that they were a terrible, terrible idea.

* In Norway they have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Troll1.JPG troll crossings]].

* In Duarte, California there is a [[http://i46.tinypic.com/2qj9310.jpg nun crossing sign]].

-->--- ''Film/BatmanBegins''

** Special note: this would fall under GenreBlind, too. The scheme was to get Rhinokey arrested for speeding.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' once featured a characteristically bizarre version in which the signs announced "killer clams", "cheese graters" and, horror of horrors, [[EdutainmentShow "EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION"]].

* In the opening credits of ''WesternAnimation/IAMWeasel'', Weasel's driving a convertible with a hot blonde. But he passes a road sign that reads "LOGO". He leaps out of the car in the direction the sign indicates, and jumps into the logo for the show.