Funny / Public Service Announcement

READ ME THIS STORY!!!

Usually, PSAs and PIFs are scary and effective but some of them take these messages in a funny yet effective way.

---

Examples

• Though the Partnership to End Addiction PSAs are best known for terrifying young children, one '80s ad was rather amusing. A 30-something man and his friend are seen smoking pot and laughing at another PDFA ad in the background, talking about the negative side effects of marijuana. "We've been getting high for what, fifteen years? Nothing's ever happened," he says. "In fact, I'd say I'm exactly the same as when I smoked my first joint." Cue the voice of his mother from another room asking if he bothered looking for a job today.
  • The same organization later made a similar anti-marijuana ad in the 2000s. In this ad, a teenager uses weed to construct a cocoon in his bedroom, eventually closing himself in it. He emerges as a middle-aged man with a receding hairline still living with his parents.
  • In another amusing ad from the organization, a stoner buys fifteen surfing monkey coin banks from a home shopping channel. What makes it funnier is that it was based on something that happened to the producer's friend.
  • An 80's ad featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) has the turtles teaching a class of children on what Joey should do if a drug dealer offered him drugs. When Joey is taunted by the drug dealer if he's a chicken for declining his offer of drugs, he comes up with a comeback to him:
    "I'm not a chicken, you're a turkey!"
    • From the same ad, there is also this exchange when Leonardo asks the kids what Joey should do:
      Kid: Get a teacher!
      Raphael: Excellent!
      Michelangelo: Get a pizza!
      Donatello: Get real...
• Talk To FRANK, the UK's leading drug education hotline, released a series of PIFs entitled Pablo, the Drug Mule Dog. In the best known entry in the series, we see our hero rather nonchalantly react to waking up after being cut open and stitched back together to have his cargo removed, interview some headache pills, a casanova dime bag of coke and a rolled up 20 pound note, remind a woman at a party that he can't give her money for coke because he's just a dog, then witnesses an addict's nostrils arguing with each other.
• Thai PSAs are one of the contenders in this category. Just like their advertising counterpart, however, when they can get to be heartbreaking, they will.
  • This PSA, about the dangers of eating pesticide-given seasonal vegetables, is the most popular one so far, as it exceeded expectations when it comes to Thai-style comedy, while still getting the message across.
  • Another one example of a Thai PSA, which is about safe driving. Unlike above, the ending, a.k.a reality, is shown brutally.
  • still another Thai PSA shows a man humorously ending his drinking habit in front of his family and starts becoming a more productive member of society. The scene where the man is ranting while drunk and starts to become sober after a realization became an Internet meme in 2021, at least 20 years after it was aired.
  • This series of PSAs about conserving gas strikes the right balance between funny and informative. The first one, in particular, uses the tried-and-true Cluster F-Bomb formula.
• This Amnesty International PSA makes a serious point about the extent of the arms trade... by showing a shopping channel selling an AK-47.
• "Slab" from Transport Accident Commission Victoria should be your usual terrifying traffic PSA, as two dead teenagers are wheeled into an autopsy room, not realising they're dead, but a healthy dose of Nightmare Retardant comes in when the first teen sounds more annoyed than in pain when the technician comes over to cut open his skull. The technician then begins rapping and dancing, mocking the two dead guys for the idiocy that resulted in them ending up there while riding around on a table. A trio of doctors wheeling another dead guy carry out an interlude, then upon arrival at the autopsy room, the dead guy himself begins singing!
• From the Shelter Pet Project, Sand Box Cat.
  • ”POOP ALREADY! You’re making me nervous!”
• The anti-gambling "kick the habit" ad in Singapore has the kids discussing who would win the World Cup 2014, one boy says that he hopes that Germany will win because his dad bets his savings on them. It gets funnier when Germany won the World Cup later, leading to a follow-up poster ad.◊
  • Another anti-gambling ad from Singapore shows a man named Kelvin thinking about stopping his friend Ben from making gambling a problem but he resists as he wonders what's the worst it can happen. Cue the exaggerated scenarios of Ben getting expelled from school and his home, then Kelvin taking care of him while lending money from him, starts to steal his credit card for illegal online gambling, and then the SWAT team raiding his flat and falsely arresting Kelvin. After Kelvin realized it can go really wrong, he decided to take action immediately.
• This 2012 ad about the evils of electoral bribery from Hong Kong's sole anti-corruption agency, the ICAC, portrays what it would be like if a terrible singer bribed Hong Kong into being everywhere.
• This anti-piracy PSA from the Philippines starring comedians, Jose and Wally. The pirate was subjected to humiliation as he was forced by the two to reveal his hidden cameras.
• While the I Saw Your Willy PSA does get kind of creepy near the end with the stranger messaging Alex, his bully's "UR WILLY IS RUBBISH!" is pretty hilarious.
• This late 1980s fireworks safety PIF is one of the most hilarious PIFs (though meant to frighten viewers) ever made due to a child yelling "DON'T BE A DUMMY, DON'T THROW FIREWORKS!!" which annoys viewers. It shows that being annoying can make the message effective.
• For those of you terrified of the prevent-it.ca work safety ads (especially the chef getting burned by the grease), this spoof is total Nightmare Retardant involving a clumsy guy at his "house" (complete with a dry-erase board and indoor chain link fence).
  • Speaking of prevent-it.ca, the one from 2009 where zombies suddenly attack a group of construction workers might have scary moments due to how intensely scary the zombie attack and details were, but the narration might end up giving you chuckles.
  Narrator: Workplace injuries and deaths are preventable. If there is a random zombie attack, run like a motherf**ker.
• This public information film about using an alternative mode of transportation from Spain has a man's escalating Humiliation Conga on full display.
• This ad reminding you to get checked for lung cancer after you've quit smoking.
  • "Aw, man, that's a new fence."
• In response to the French nuclear tests in the 1990s, a 1995 Greenpeace PSA utilises the baby basinette analogy. The father comes down with a bad case of Potty Emergency, and proceeds to, in nuclear fashion, crap the bassinet. It turns out the father was an analogy for France, and the basinette the Pacific.
• The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has been said to have "the best account on Twitter" because of its absurd, often hilarious PSAs. One highlight is this image of Bird Ben Franklin partnering with a black-and-white photograph of Abraham Lincoln to tell American kids to quit eating laundry pods. Bird Ben Franklin is actually a character of his own, complete with lore: he's Benjamin Franklin, transformed into a top hat-wearing cardinal after a time-travel experiment gone wrong. He's part of the Birds for Human Safety Consortium, along with fellow chubby, hat-wearing birds Reggye the Wise, Stacy!, and Handsome Ron:
  "Four birds brought together by fate to protect people by delivering important safety messages. Bird Ben Franklin - the actual Ben Franklin turned into a bird after an experiment gone wrong and gifted a hat by Abraham Lincoln. Stacy! - Excited to be here. Looking sharp. Thinking sharp. Ready to lead. Reggye the Wise - named for a high performing CPSC Office of Communications intern. Queen. Ruler of all they see. Handsome Ron. European immigrant. Proud naturalized American citizen. Magical hat changes color and form depending on the season. Very handsome."
• This anti-drink driving ad from New Zealand has a man deciding on if he should convince his buddy to crash at the party instead of driving home. Affectionately nicknamed "Ghost Chips" due to imagining his friend's ghost haunting him after and repeatedly offering him chips, it's certainly one of the more light-hearted ads featuring the potential dangers of drink driving. It's so popular, it was even spoofed by a two-man group.
• truth is known for its horrifying anti-smoking PSAs, there are a series of anti-smoking ads from their Sunny Side all of which have a formula. First, the beginning like a normal anti-smoking ad, then it starts turning into animated musical poking fun at Big Tobacco, then after the song ends have The Stinger as a finish. These are the main videos.
  • truth also brought the "Depression Stick" campaign, where it plays out like a standard tech commercial... For a vape pen, where it describes vape amplifying depression and anxiety as a selling point, upbeat music and voice and all.
• Australia's 2021 traffic safety ad means to get medieval on offenders. Literally.
• This unintentionally hilarious PIF from NSPCC. It depicts a Drill Sergeant Nasty in full regalia making childish demands to a woman, much to the latter's dismay who eventually gets up to hit the actual child while screaming "I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" For good reason, this PIF serves as this page's image source. It's revealed later on in the PIF that it was a toddler making those demands to the said woman turning out to be his mother. While the message is very important, in that children naturally ask questions and make requests almost incessantly, and that it's important to seek help if you're suffering from anger issues before you take it out on them, the whole thing comes off as hilariously Narmy in practice.
• This 2003 speeding PSA from Czechia shows a group of people at a funeral, with a brass band playing sombre music and the pallbearers getting ready to lower the coffin. Suddenly, another group of people shows up, playing a fast upbeat tune as they start running, bumping into other people and destroying property that stood in their way. In the end, the pallbearers throw the coffin as it roughly falls into the grave.
• In the 1980s and 1990s there were the "Vince and Larry" PSAs, featuring Vince and Larry, two crash test dummies who often complain about their job. This one has Vince complaining about having to "eat steering wheel," complete with a blink-and-miss-it moment of sprinkling some salt on the steering wheel. Another parodies the infamous "this is your brain on drugs" PSA.
• These poster◊ ads◊ from Childline UK compares and contrasts awkward situations, like accidentally calling your teacher 'mum', to talking to Childline.
• Couple of radio PSAs from the late 80s/early 90s made suggestions for alternate transportation if you're too drunk to drive. They first present a feasible option comically and then a more outlandish option.
  • One suggestion is to ask a sober person for a lift.
    Man 1: Can, uh, you give me a ride home?
    Man 2: You're out of the way.
    Man 1: Out of the way? I'm your roommate!
  • Another suggestion is being shot out of a cannon.
    Man: Uh, is this safe?
    Cannon operator: Safer than driving!
    Boom!
  • Another suggestion is a yak-drawn sleigh.
    Man 1: Uh, where's my car?
    Man 2: Forget the car. Here comes a yak.
• A spoof episode of Canada's "Hinterland Who's Who", which focuses on a specific animal in order to learn more about them, covers the effects of drugs on how the wood spider makes webs. Its whole premise is satire, but the moment all sanity goes out the window is when one spider, which had been administered alcohol, gets a tiny restraining order, and it only gets more unhinged from there. You can watch it here.
• A rather tame PSA by Amnesty International Portugal can even be considered quite funny. It goes like this: a businessman bumps into an afroamerican and starts yelling at him (note that he says that word in the English version via subtitles, now that's not good). What happens next? Is he scolded back? Is he reported to the police? No, he is run over by a car. Take that, dummy!