Can't You Read the Sign?

That sign can't stop me, because I can't read!

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that
Can't you read the sign?

— Five Man Electrical Band, "Signs"

A humorous trope in which a posted sign or spoken warning against an action is so precise that you just know that the characters will do exactly that, or just have.

Not to be mistaken for Schmuck Bait, where the sign is the source of temptation. Instead, this trope forbids something that the characters were going to do anyway, or didn't realize was forbidden; often they take no notice of the sign.

Compare Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught and Rules of the Road. Overlaps with I Warned You if the person pointing out the sign is the one who posted it in the first place. For the sub-trope related to barring animals from places of interest see No Animals Allowed.

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Examples:

Advertising

• A commercial for Corn Pops has a sign at a zoo reading "Do Not Mesmerize Lizard With Delicious Corn Pops".

Anime & Manga

• Ayakashi Triangle: While Soga sprints ahead of Matsuri to chase down and exorcise Shirogane, Matsuri momentarily gives up on stopping him, slowing to a walk in front of a sign reading "Danger: Slow Down". Next we see Matsuri, he saves Shirogane from Soga at the last second by riding the uprooted sign through the air.
• The ubiquitous, not-once-respected "No Smoking" signs from Cowboy Bebop. One of them is even written in German.
• Haruhi Suzumiya never met a sign she didn't promptly ignore, such as the NO DIVING sign during the pool scene in the anime adaptation of "Endless Eight", while Kyon has never missed a sign that he didn't suffer for. At least, not yet. R.I.P., Kyon's Bike.
• In Inuyasha, during the fox demon exams, Shippo dangles a rope with a sign attached in front of Inuyasha that reads "Do Not Pull". Inuyasha pulls it, and Shippo pulls out a sign that reads "Idiots Will Pull" complete with fireworks. Needless to say, Inuyasha is very pissed and uses the Wind Scar on Shippo. Rumiko Takahashi loves this gag, and it appears several more times in her works.
• A favorite gag in Ranma ½:
  • In one instance, there is a sign saying "Do Not Break Wall". Ryōga breaks it.
  • Early in the anime, Ryōga falls down a hill next to a sign reading "Warning: Landslide area".
  • In the manga, Ryōga, thinking of Akane, hugs a pole that has the notice "Do Not Hug Pole." Because he's so strong, he breaks the pole. And right above the former sign there is another, off-panel in the previous panel, which reads "Do Not Break Pole."
  • An exhausted Ryōga is so desperate he asks a horse for directions. Naturally, there's a nearby sign that reads, "Do not talk to horse."
  • Ranma's mom sits on a water main marked "Danger: Do Not Sit."
  • Pantyhose Taro is dangled from a tree with a sign on it reading: "Please do not hang people from this tree."
  • Sōun and Genma are once knocked off a cliff by a sign blown at them by very strong winds. The sign reads: "Danger! High Winds!"
  • Ranma is once running atop the fence by the canal (as he does all the time), when a section falls out, marked with a sign that reads "Danger: Unstable. Do not stand on top." He quickly jumps onto the next section... which read "Also Unstable" and dumps him into the water.
  • One of the more humorous examples has a one-shot character waiting for Kodachi at a garden while doing a Noblewoman's Laugh. Naturally, there is a sign right outside that says "Please do not laugh loudly inside the garden."
  • Ryū Kumon, while training with his Razor Wind technique, cut into pieces a Bhudda statue bearing the sign "Please don't cut the Bhudda statue into pieces." Later, the statue had been pieced together (with adhesive tape) and sports a new sign: "Please don't cut the Bhudda statue into pieces again." Naturally, Ryū does so while fighting Ranma (and the statue's head is crying).
• A running gag in the early episodes of Steins;Gate is Okabe using his cellphone while sitting in front of a "No Cellphones" sign. Made all the funnier in that he's only pretending to use his phone, but is always chewed out for it nonetheless.
• At one point in Yotsuba&!, Yotsuba leans over the arm of an escalator... and hits her head on a sign warning not to do just that.
• One episode of You're Under Arrest! has local Vigilante Man Strike Man getting angry at a bunch of cars parked right in front of a "No Parking" sign. He proceeds to deflate their tires as punishment.

Comedy

• Overweight comedian Bruce Bruce has a bit involving him and his similarly heavy cousin going to all-you-can-eat restaurants and sitting down at the buffet itself to eat, using "Well, I don't see a sign!" as their defense when approached by the staff. He mentions that when they get up to go to the bathroom, the restaurant usually puts out a sign.
• Ron White once talked about having to drive his wife to the bank while having his two dogs in the car with him, who both needed to pee. However, the only grass around was a small lawn in front of the bank with a sign posted saying "No Dogs", and he had no choice but to let his dogs use it.
  Bank Manager: [storming out of the bank angrily] The sign says "No Dogs"!
  Ron: ...The sign's wrong. The sign should say "Two Dogs"!

Comic Books

• In one Archie Comics episode, "A Symbol Problem", Veronica goes to Norway. But everywhere she turns (and whatever she does), she always meets up with a guard who points to a sign which prohibits something she has done. Fed up with everything, she finally decides to show everyone what the place is really like, and changes the sign to say, "Welcome to NO WAY".
• Played for laughs in a Donald Duck story. He and his nephews go to a foreign country and the nephews climb a wall. On the other side of the wall, a furious man calls their attention to a sign at the top of the wall and asks if they can't read it. As the sign is written in the country's language instead of one they knew, the nephew who answers truthfully says "no". (The wall is so high nobody would be able to read the sign without climbing it first.)
• The Mask Returns once shows Big Head revealing a bomb (that he himself pulled out from Hammerspace, no less) with the text "Warning: Do not strike with hammer" on it. Guess what he does.
• A one-panel scene in Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life shows him sitting on a couch, right next to a sign that says "Do Not Sit". The Movie reproduced the scene as well (Director Edgar Wright states in the commentary that he thought it was one of Brian Lee O'Malley's best jokes).
• In the War Picture Library story Who Needs Courage?, Lieutenant Courage is lost in the desert and orders his driver to investigate a sign that might give them directions. When they drive over to it, a land mine explodes under their car. The sign turns out to read ACHTUNG MINEN!
• Phil Foglio is fond of these as background jokes in his various comics. As an example, in a Mad Scientist's lab in XXXenophile, there was a sign on a complex piece of electrical equipment reading, "Do Not Place Tongue Here. Again".

Comic Strips

• B.C.:
  • One strip has a character see a sign that says "Do not stand in front of sign". He tries to walk past it, but the other side says "Do not stand behind sign". The last panel shows him standing on top of the sign, a helpless expression on his face.
  • The same character, standing and staring at a sign, implicitly for quite a while. When someone comes along, he asks them, "Hey, what does 'loitering' mean?"
  • Other signs have included "DO NOT EAT THIS SIGN" (Grog ate the pole and spat out the sign) and "DO NOT STAND ON THIS SIGN" (cue rebellious caveman standing on it, despite gravity being 90 degrees from the position he was in).
• In Bloom County, signs reading "No toad sexing" or other strange restrictions could occasionally be spotted in the background. A visitor to MIT will find the words "No toad sexing" scrawled on the walls in numerous out-of-the-way places. The exact origin of this is disputed.
• The Far Side did this a few times:
  "Do Not Give the Birds Dutch Rubs"
  "Keep Off the Dog"
  "Absolutely No Projectile Vomiting" - A sign in an art museum. A nearby security guard is concerned when he sees Linda Blair doing the Exorcist Head.
• Garfield: In the March 25, 2024 strip, Garfield notices a sign high up on a tree and so climbs up the tree in question to check it out... only to discover after the fact that the sign reads "NO CLIMBING". Oops.
• Nodwick:
  • Done with a Sword in the Stone.
  • Also:
    Nodwick: What part of "Open ye not the portal to my tomb lest I pour out my undying wrath" did you not understand?
    Yeagar: I thought it was just a bluff to keep the tourists out.
• A strip by Quino shows a man blatantly disregarding a "No smoking" sign. Laser-Guided Karma ensues.
• The U.S. Acres strip used it quite a bit (in the first link, starts near the bottom).

Fan Works

• In Angry Harry And The Seven, a slowly escalating Running Gag on the Hogwarts Express is Harry Potter placing "Please Knock" signs on the door to whichever carriage compartment he claims, people ignoring the signs, trying to barge in without knocking, getting thwarted by spells, and getting indignant about it instead of learning the manners that Harry Potter is trying to teach.
• In Chapter 3 of The Great Alicorn Hunt, while panicking over six new alicorns, some dolt activated the klaxon marked "in event of invasion by giant snails", which the situation clearly was not.
• Guys Being Dudes: Arlo's actions managed to get the Sleepless Bakery to put up a sign reading "No Monologuing". They also have a "No PDAs" sign, which gets used on the main couple.
• Several instances of these happen in quick succession in Manehattan's Lone Guardian:
  • First, there are several "do not gallop on wet floor" signs in Bronclyn High's pool area. Another sign posted in the same area calls out anypony who thinks that the aforementioned signs are there just for decoration.
  • Second, the same sign posts a warning directed specifically to Gray Ghost that she is not allowed to sleep in the sunshine on the diving board, and that she is not allowed to use "but I didn't see the sign" as an excuse. Of course, she blatantly violates that warning in every respect while waiting for Leviathan to show up for their duel. It is stated that the sign dates back decades to when Gray attended the school as a teenager, implying that she was disregarding the sign even then.
• Things I Am Not Allowed to Do at the PPC: Rule 339 is a reminder to never ignore signs reading "Spatial Rift: No entry", regardless of where they're posted.

Films — Animation

• Batman and Harley Quinn: Harley Quinn works as a waitress at Superbabes. A customer tries to grope Harley and she breaks his arm. When he complains about it, a cook points at a sign that reads, "Look All You Want, But Don't Touch The Girls".
• The Emperor's New Groove has a "No Llamas" (a llama with a line through it) sign at the diner.
• Jetsons: The Movie: When George gets into the inner workings of the plant to sabotage it and shut it off, when he gets to the end, there is a sign that says "WARNING! DO NOT STICK YOUR FINGER IN THIS HOLE!". No points for guessing what exactly George does next. (Bonus points to the producers, though, for including George doing a mischievous Eyebrow Waggle to the audience, as if to say, "Yeah, you know EXACTLY what I'm going to do!")
• Lady and the Tramp features a scene where Lady, after getting muzzled after a clash with mean Aunt Sarah's two Siamese cats, is taken by the Tramp to a zoo to find an animal that will help him get the muzzle off. There is a sign that says "No Dogs Allowed" at the entrance of the zoo. The Tramp gets around this by inciting a fight between the guard and a visitor, allowing him and Lady to enter the zoo undetected.
• Luca has a scene where a group of children are shown playing soccer in a plaza where you can clearly see a "No Soccer" sign on a nearby wall.
• Pom Poko has a scene where trash is dumped in the woods near a "no littering" sign.

Films — Live-Action

• In Airplane II: The Sequel, there is a sign on some fuel barrels saying "Flammable. No Smoking. No Spitting." One character lights a cigarette and throws the match at the barrels — nothing happens. Another character spits at the barrels, causing a huge explosion.
• Antigang: Serge and Niels are both smoking in the surveillance van. Manu asks if he can bum a cigarette off one of them, as he forgot to buy any. Serge just points somberly at the 'No Smoking' displayed prominently in the van.
• In Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) the protagonists use a large sign as an improvised barricade against the gangbangers attacking the police station. The sign tells them to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POLICE.
• In Back to the Future Part II, when going to the future Hilldale, Doc Brown lands the flying DeLorean... on a part of the road with a large "NO LANDING" painted on the ground.
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks features a hapless bear who catches the magical bed while fishing, and tries to throw Miss Price and company back into the sea because "Can't you read reading? No Peopling Allowed!"
• Carry On Behind: Two pretty girls, Carol and Sandra, plan to camp at the caravan site. Carol is dismayed by the sign informing them that only caravans are permitted, but Sandra knows that they can easily charm the site owner, Major Leep, as indeed they do.
• La Cité de la peur:
  • This French movie starts with a very poor slasher film in which a hammer-and-sickle-wielding killer is thrown into a puddle of oil fuel. Next to said puddle is a sign saying "OIL FUEL. DO NOT JUMP IN THERE". When the killer is thrown in the puddle again, the sign now says "OIL FUEL. DO NOT RE-JUMP IN THERE".
  • "Choucroute interdite" ("Sauerkraut forbidden").
• Clerks: The customers are so stupid, they routinely ask the clerks if they're open. Or how much something is without looking at the 99¢ signs behind them.
• There is a dramatic, rather than humorous, example in Five Easy Pieces when the coffee-shop waitress points out the "no substitutions" notice on the menu to nihilistic protagonist Robert Dupea as he tries to order plain wheat toast. He politely orders around her rule, but she refuses to accommodate him, saying, "See that sign sir?" (It says "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.") "Guess you'll all have to leave. I'm not taking any more of your smartness and sarcasm!" Dupea's reply is the one line everyone remembers from the movie.
• In For Your Eyes Only, a mook ignores the "Burglar Protected" sticker on the window of James Bond's Lotus Esprit Turbo when trying to break into it. Then again, he didn't expect the car to explode when he broke said window with his gun.
• Subject of a gag in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, in which a beaker in a laboratory is labeled "ACID: DO NOT THROW IN FACE". Rather unsurprisingly, a Gremlin chooses to ignore this dictate.
• In The Hot Chick there's two instances of this. When Jessica (in Clive's body) starts strangling Clive (in Jessica's body) the owner of the strip club comes to point at a neon sign that reads "No strangling the dancers". Later on, when Clive returns to his body and tries to run out of the club (because he still has the stripper outfit), the same owner points to another sign: "Monday night is Gay night".
• Interceptor opens on a sign warning that deadly force is authorized against trespassers on a military base, only for the camera to pan across a white-painted boom gate splattered with blood as the villains kill everyone inside. Though it was apparently an Inside Job so they weren't technically trespassing.
• In Joey (1997), Billy panics upon seeing an oddly-specific "No Kangaroos" sign on the train to Sydney, though he manages to keep Joey hidden until they get there.
• Ashley in Just My Luck tries to sit down at a restaurant and get a glass of water, but the Funny Foreigner manager tells her "No buy no sit!", then points out a sign that actually does use those exact words.
• At the start of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Max finds a truck abandoned near a sign indicating the Mundi Mundi Lookout, except the Look and Out are separated by a space. Clearly the driver didn't look out, as Max finds his corpse.
• In Mary Poppins Returns, a Running Gag is the park keeper pointing out "keep off the grass" signs. He appears in the underwater bath scene, pointing to a sign saying "keep off the sea grass". In the balloon scene when the park is full of people, he looks grumpy while they all walk over his beautiful grass.
• In the park in which the Burly Brawl in The Matrix Reloaded takes place, there's a sign on the wall that reads "No Brawling". It's visible here.
• Max Keeble's Big Move played on this a bit: When Megan meets Jenna for the first time, Jenna tells her that the seat she's sitting in actually belongs to her. Megan asks if it has her name on it or something, to which Jenna reveals that the seat does have her name on it.
• Not Another Teen Movie:
  • A sign on the ventilation duct work states: "Limit Two Horny Teenage Boys". When three try to use it, it breaks.
  • When we first see Areola, she's standing naked in a school hallway next to a sign that says "Dress Code Strictly Enforced".
• Scary Movie begins with a woman running away from the killer. She reaches a sign which points in two directions, one "Safety", the other "Death". Guess which one she picks.
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: In addition to the "Do Not Sit" joke under Comics, every time we see Scott's sister on the phone, she's doing so under a sign that declares customers who are on their phones will be ignored.
• In Sgt. Bilko, we get Bilko sitting behind his desk in the motor pool, in front of a huge no smoking sign. "We have rules!" (lights match on sign) "Rules and regulations!" (lights cigar with match, takes puff).
• Smiley Face: Roommate Steve has made a tray if cupcakes for his Sci-Fi movie marathon with his friends, and has left a note telling Jane to not eat them. She does anyway, and after and hour, realizes they were made with weed.
• Spaceballs:
  • The auto destruct button has a sign warning not to press it unless you really, really mean it. It is ultimately set off semi-accidentally when Dark Helmet gets body-slammed against it.
  • At the start of Lone Star's rescue of Princess Vespa, a group of Spaceballs object to him parking his ship outside the detention block. "Hey! You can't park here!" "Yeah! Can't you guys read? No parking!" The heroes proceed to ignore the demand.
• In A Stranger Among Us, Fair Cop Emily Eden is seen having a Cigarette of Anxiety right underneath a huge "No Smoking" sign while she waits for word on her injured partner.
• Underwater. Norah takes refuge in an abandoned Underwater Base, thinking she's the Sole Survivor of the crew. The camera does a slow pan across a poster encouraging employees to make use of the buddy system as Working alone is against company policy.
• The Wages of Fear: The characters keep smoking next to a truck full of nitroglycerin, with a sign that says "No flame within 50 feet." Not used for comedy so much as to display the characters disregard for their own safety.
• Waterworld: The tower bridge of the oil tanker used as lair by the Smokers has a huge "NO SMOKING" sign over it. As their name can hint, they are chain-smoking thugs.
• The guitar store in Wayne's World has the sign "NO Stairway to Heaven". This sign is based off the real world: so many people would come into music shops and test the guitars by playing "Stairway to Heaven" that clerks would hang those signs^note Some guitar shops have a sign warning against playing "Smoke on the Water" — the chord sequence for the opening can be transposed to power chords, making it so simple that almost anyone can thrash it out, but that's no excuse for inflicting it on the poor sales staff yet again. Seriously, don't do that. In the original theatrical release, Wayne did play Zeppelin's classic, but on home video releases, due to music licensing issues, it's a Suspiciously Similar Song. If anything, that makes it even funnier. "No Stairway! Denied!"
• A classic example is the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and the others arrive at Emerald City. After ringing the bell, the doorman tells them "Can't you read the sign?" He then realizes he had forgotten to put up the sign which reads "Bell out of order. Please knock." It is also evidently the Trope Namer, however, the scene actually goes like this:
  Doorman: Can't you read?
  Scarecrow: Read what?
  Doorman: The notice.
  All four: What notice?
• Wonka: While looking at the empty shop in the Galeries Gourmet, Willy Wonka starts imagining it as his own chocolate shop. He is interrupted by Officer Affable who fines him three sovereigns; pointing at the "For Rent" sign, which has "No Daydreaming" printed underneath it.
• Zack Snyder's Justice League. Our introduction to Barry Allen starts with a truck heading towards Central City past a sign that says "Reduce Speed". When the truck causes a road accident, Barry uses his Super-Speed to save the life of Innocent Bystander Iris West.

Literature

• In one of John Bellairs's Anthony Monday books, Miss Eells blatantly ignores a "No Trespassing" sign as she and Anthony hop a fence to explore an empty house. The narrator notes that Miss Eells hates such signs anyway, and once stomped on one just to show what she thought of it.
• Discworld:
  • Soul Music: There's no sign in Blert Wheedon's guitar shop; the "warning" that you shouldn't play "Pathway to Paradise" is when a troll rips your arms off.
  • Used as a weapon in Thief of Time against powerful beings called the Auditors. Since the Auditors follow "laws" and are actually the ones who file the paperwork for them, they obviously must respect what the sign says. When the signs in question are nonsensical, like an arrow pointing left that says "KEEP RIGHT"... And when presented with a sign prohibiting the feeding of the elephant — the Auditors are compelled to seek out an elephant to not feed.
    Ignore this sign. By order.
  • It's also occasionally referenced that an Ankh-Morpork citizen/Wizard, upon encountering a sign not to perform an action, will immediately perform the action just to see what all the fuss is about. Which is why the sign on the stick holding the Portal Window open in The Last Continent says "Do not remove this wood. Not even to see what happens. IMPORTANT."
  • And indeed that if there was a big lever in a hidden cave somewhere with a sign next to it saying "END OF THE WORLD SWITCH. DO NOT TOUCH." the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.
• Andy Griffiths' Just Series:
  • A hilarious inversion in Just Annoying! Andy takes one of his neighbor's garden gnomes on holiday and sets it up for a photograph (for a postcard) on the diving board at the swimming pool. The lifeguard catches him and tells him that garden gnomes are banned from the pool. When Andy correctly points out that this is not on the sign (which he even checked beforehand), the response is "It shouldn't have to be, it should be obvious".
  • Just Stupid! has a running gag where a park-keeper points out signs ("Keep off the Garden", "No Swimming") shortly after Andy has broken the rule in question, which eventually drives him to try and chase Andy out of the park. Andy's attempts at Loophole Abuse do not help: "I look around to check there's no signs saying 'No Scooping'. No, only one that says 'No Fishing'." Or more brazenly, "As far as I can see there is no sign around here saying 'Do Not Dismantle the "No Fishing" Sign and Turn It Into a Scoop'."
• In the Kingkiller Chronicle series, taverns near the Arcanum have signs reading "No Sympathy" where "Sympathy" is a form of Functional Magic. Kvothe points out that these signs are likely confusing to persons unfamiliar with magic.
• Polish book Krzyżacki Poker (in English it would be Teutonic Poker, as in Teutonic Knights Order) utilises this on the cover — we see a character smoking right under the sign "Rauchen Verboten" ("No Smoking" in German).
• Crops up in the Nomes Trilogy, although in this case the nomes don't understand the signs (or indeed a lot of other parts of our world).
• "In Ambush" from Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling has Colonel Dabney, who walled his territory with a fence with lots of notice-boards such as "Prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law. G. M. Dabney, Col., J.P., an' all the rest of it." — and jaws the land and sea out of everyone who fails to keep out.
  Colonel Dabney: You saw my notice-boards? Must have. Don't attempt to deny it. Ye did! Damnable, oh damnable!
• Thomas the Tank Engine: Several characters face the consequences of ignoring signs.
  • In Down the Mine, Thomas sets out to disobey a sign saying "Danger: Engines must not pass this board". He ends up... down the mine, whose roof is not strong enough to hold the weight of an engine.
  • In Percy takes the Plunge, Percy sees a sign at the quay simply marked "Danger". Thomas tells him that "Danger" means falling down something, telling of how he fell down the mine. When Percy sneaks past it, he finds that the rails slope steeply down to the sea, where he ends up.
  • Bulgy the double-decker bus ends up wedged under a low bridge. Although not referred to in the text, a "low bridge" sign is visible in the original illustration.
• A Sweet Pickles Book called Xerus Won't Allow It has the title creature (a relative of the squirrel family) posting signs in an attempt to bring order in the town where she lives.
• Tom Holt's book Who's Afraid of Beowulf? has some Vikings encountering the many signs on the London Underground escalators, and are almost stumped by the one saying "Dogs must be carried". Thankfully, they have a shapeshifter.

Live-Action TV

• All That:
  • In one skit, the actors admonished a studio audience member for bringing a sheep into the studio. He protested, saying "I didn't see a sign!" At that point they indicate a large "NO SHEEP" sign on the wall.
  • And then there's the Noisy Librarian sketches...
• In a sketch on The Benny Hill Show, Benny plays a worker putting up assorted signs. One of the signs says "Post No Bills." A policeman comes along and sees him posting the Post No Bills sign and tickets him for posting the sign.
• One episode of Big Time Rush has the nasty hotel manager putting up a sign to prevent children from swimming: "Adult Swim. No kids allowed." Kendall takes out a marker and adds some creative punctuation: "Adult Swim? No! Kids allowed!" Everyone proceeds to jump in.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • In "Out of My Mind", Spike lights up a cigarette while framed by a "No Smoking" sign. In a hospital, no less. Harmony, however, looks embarrassed and snuffs hers out when the sign is pointed out to her.
  • In "Hush", after everyone is struck mute, Riley and Forest take the elevator down to the Initiative, but can't provide the voice ID and the elevator starts to fill with deadly gas. They're rescued before they asphyxiate, and after letting them out, Professor Walsh points out the sign that reads "In case of emergency, use stairs".
  • Also used for ominous foreshadowing — at the end of "The Harvest", Angel appears to be standing next to a sign saying WATCH YOU — appropriate enough for his Mysterious Watcher role. However, when he walks away, we see the sign actually reads WATCH YOUR STEP, foretelling his Face–Heel Turn into Angelus.
  • Similarly, at the end of "After Life" when Buffy confides in Spike, he's standing next to a discarded door with a BEWARE OF DOG sign — a Running Gag with Spike, but this time hinting at the Destructive Romance to follow.
  • And in an episode that addresses the destructive nature of Buffy's Romantic Vampire Boy attraction, there's a road safety poster saying Most Women Aren't Attracted To Dead Guys.
  • In "Faith, Hope, and Trick", shortly after Faith is introduced and doing a tour of the school she stands in front of a poster, Campus Rape Starts Here. It's meant to be a warning on spiking drinks but depending on how you count them Faith would end up a multiple rapist.
• Community: Jeff takes Beginner Pottery, an "ultimate blow-off class", then sets off Professor Holly's Berserk Button by inadvertently re-enacting the pottery scene in Ghost (1990). Holly growls "One rule I asked you to follow. One. LOOK!" and points to a poster of Patrick Swayze with an "X" over it.
  Holly: I had it made before he died. It's not in bad taste.
• In an episode of Corner Gas, Lacey tells Karen not to play with her hackey sack in the restaurant. Karen says that if it's a rule, there should be a sign posted, to which Lacey replies "We don't have a sign for everything. Read the sign!" and then points to a sign that reads "We don't have a sign for everything. — Lacey".
• Cowboy Bebop:
  • In "Venus Pop" our heroes are desperate to get to an Escape Pod, yet completely miss the large luminous sign showing where it is.
  • In "Binary Two-Step", the BeBop is Coming in Hot on top of an abandoned military base, and crashes through a sign saying DO NOT ENTER.
  • In "Sad Clown A-Go-Go", foreshadowing of Mad Pierrot's introduction to our heroes is given by a shot of a sign saying CAUTION.
• Doctor Who:
  • Inverted in "Spearhead from Space", in which the Third Doctor is recovering from regeneration in a British hospital. He sneaks out of his room in a hospital gown, seeking clothes and to hide from his (very perplexed) physician; spotting a door marked "Doctors Only", he (being the Doctor) walks right in.
  • In "Time Heist", all the air vents have the warning "No Entry Under Any Circumstances". Given that Air Vent Escape is a Running Gag in the series, let alone this episode, it's universally ignored.
  • In "The Caretaker", the Doctor complains of the Snooping Little Kid who ignored his Keep Out sign. She points out that it actually reads "GO AWAY HUMANS", which while still pertinent is a bit harder to take seriously.
  • In "The Woman Who Fell to Earth", the Doctor and companions must climb a tall crane to take on the villain of the week. There's a sign on the crane showing a falling man and DANGER OF DEATH — DO NOT CLIMB. It also counts as Foreshadowing, as someone does end up falling.
• In the first episode of Flight of the Conchords, Sally breaks up with Jermaine in front of a sign that says "No Dumping".
• Get Smart: In "Where-What-How-Who Am I?", Maxwell Smart crashes his car next to a sign advertising Safe Driving Week. In fairness he only did so because a KAOS agent was firing an automatic weapon at him.
• The Goodies
  • In "Holidays", Bill pulls down a list of ridiculously strict rules on the wall of their holiday chalet. Underneath is a sign saying '250 pound penalty for removal of notice'. Bill hurriedly sticks it back.
  • In "Clown Virus", the Goodies are sneaking onto a US military base and see a sign at a boom gate warning them that it's dangerous to proceed beyond this point. Bill makes a big show of stepping across the white line, whereupon the boom falls on his head.
• In a flashback on Highlander, Duncan and Fitz have an argument and drew their swords. A guard yells at them, "There's no dueling in the city! Can't you read the sign?" In the next flashback segment, it's revealed that at the time, neither man could read.
• Home Improvement:
  • In an episode, Tim Taylor and Jill Taylor decided to each test-drive a tank, and Tim manages to plow several things over, including a sign that said "Tank Crossing" that was conveniently right in his path.
  • When the Tool Time crew visited an aircraft carrier, a large sign on the deck was modified to read, "Beware of jet blast, propellers and Tim".
• In an episode of How I Met Your Mother, Barney is trying to get Marshall from Atlantic City to New York, and steals a motorcycle off a display in the middle of a casino. Since he hadn't yet driven out of the building, when the security guards take him to wait for the police, he challenges them to show him the rule that says you can't drive a motorcycle in the casino. The guard smirks and pulls over a book of casino rules. Jump Cut to the guard slamming the book closed and saying, "He's right, let him go." Immediately afterwards another guard is hanging a sign, "No Motorcycle Riding on Casino Floor".
• In Malcolm in the Middle, when Dewey is first sent to the troubled kids classes, he sits next to a boy with boxing gloves on who asks him if he can scratch his nose. Dewey points out that the boy has a sign on his chest that says "Don't touch. Bites." He tells him to just ignore the sign. Before cutting to commercial, and as Dewey approaches his finger to scratch his nose, we see that he has another sign on his back: "Don't ignore the sign".
• A M*A*S*H episode opens with Hawkeye driving a jeep with Frank Burns, who orders him to "stop right here!" Cut to them pulling up at a sign reading, "DON'T STOP HERE — YOU'RE UNDER DIRECT ENEMY VISION!!" (Frank then jumps out to snap a picture of the sign, instantly drawing sniper fire.)
• In the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and Little Monk", Monk and Natalie had to stake out at a biker bar to identify the patrons who killed Gladys, the housekeeper of an old friend of Monk's. Monk attempts to tell a biker at the bar that he shouldn't be smoking and points to a no smoking sign right above the biker. Not only did the biker not stop smoking, but the biker simply reached up for the sign and set it on fire.
• Earl of My Name Is Earl is asked to make a shiv while in prison. He examines an array of improvised knives in a glass display case, with a sign saying "Don't make any of these".
• The Professionals:
  • In "Rogue", Bodie and Doyle rush off to the hospital after their boss George Cowley is injured. Afterwards when they get into their car and drive off, it's shown their car was parked in a NO PARKING area.
  • "In the Public Interest", has them getting reprimanded by a policeman for parking in a bus zone. The end of the episode shows they've parked there again.
• Sanford and Son had an episode where Fred tears off a tag from a sofa cushion and reads it: "Warning—do not remove under penalty of law." He tears it up and quips "Well... power to the people!"
• Supernatural:
  • In "Folsom Prison Blues", there are numerous signs posted saying that fighting by inmates will not be tolerated, but the episode is full of Good Old Fisticuffs.
  • In "My Heart Will Go On", Fate is trying to kill the Winchesters with freak accidents. As the brothers walk nervously along the street, they're alarmed by skateboarders zooming past them, pedestrians walking large dogs, and street performers juggling sharp objects, despite a sign forbidding all of these activities.
  • In "A Little Slice of Kevin", Crowley tortures Kevin Tran by cutting off a finger. We then cut to our heroes passing a sign saying, "Beware: Sharp Edges Keep Fingers Clear".
  • In "Remember the Titans", Zeus tortures Prometheus with lightning. There's a sign on the wall that says, "Danger 1000 volts".
• A Christmas episode from Swift & Shift Couriers has Mario being told to stop by the Traffic Controller, which causes a fight between them. Later that same episode, Amanda nearly killed the traffic controller while drunk.
• Top Gear once had a miniature campaign regarding unnecessary road signs. Among the first pictures shown was a car which had crashed into a sign reading: "Thank you for driving carefully through our village." Clarkson then points out that if the sign weren't there, the car wouldn't have hit anything.
• Torchwood: Children of Earth: Gwen pistol-whips a (fake) ambulance officer, next to a poster warning of the legal consequences of assaulting ambulance officers.
• One of the common bits on Trigger Happy TV was Dom Joly standing in front of an enormous picture of himself labeled 'DO NOT TRUST THIS MAN' and talking to people, giving them directions and such.
• The Two Ronnies: In "Done to Death", the mystery serial in season 2, detectives Piggy Malone and Charley Farley arrive in time to witness the latest victim of the Ten Little Murder Victims killer topple forward: dramatically revealing a large sign behind him. The sign reads "DO NOT THROW STONES AT THIS NOTICE".
• Punningly parodied in the 1960s British sketch show We Have Ways Of Making You Laugh. Two villains are about to throw their captive into an incinerator, until he notices a sign which reads "Refuse to be placed in incinerator", and does so.
• The Young Ones
  • Vyvyan is on a train and looks at a sign saying "Do not look out the window." He wonders why... sticks his head out the window and gets decapitated. Fortunately he gets better.
  • Done for a visual gag in the final episode when someone screams "CLIFF!" as they're about to hit a billboard advertising Cliff Richard. Their bus drives through the billboard and off a cliff.

Music Videos

• The music video for East Rich's "Inside" has East Rich smoke a blunt in front of a sign saying "No Smoking" during his Binge Montage. The comedic aspects are downplayed, as the video depicts East Rich turning to drugs to deal with his intense self-loathing and relationship issues.
• In the quasi-patriotic video-clip for the Dutch song "Vijftien Miljoen Mensen", the iconic image is a picture of a "Do Not Walk on the Grass" sign behind which are dozens upon dozens of people walking, talking, picnicking and doing other assorted things on the grass.
• In the Speed Demon segment of Moonwalker, a cop turns up to tell Michael Jackson off from Moonwalking, pointing to the no moonwalking sign.
• A music video with Deranged Animation has a scene where a teen boy is working at a fast food place, and he sees a sign that explicitly says something among the lines of "DO NOT STICK YOUR HEAD IN HERE". Guess what he does next?

Puppet Shows

• The Sesame Street special Don't Eat the Pictures features one of these in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Guess what it says. (This was in fact a real sign that was in the museum at the time.) Extreme Omnivore Cookie Monster finds this difficult.
  Cookie Monster: This going to be long night.
• Strange Hill High: A sign in "Health & Safety" reads "OBEY THIS SIGN", and nothing else.

Radio

• Earthsearch 2. Our heroes are hiding behind agricultural android George to shield themselves from several Killer Robots who are shooting at them. Suddenly George goes into reverse, nearly crushing them.
  Telson: You don't go into reverse while we're walking behind you! You could have killed us!
  George: Sign on back says, 'Keep Clear'. Sign put on for stupid humans.
• In Primary Phase/Fit 2 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), Ford and Arthur find themselves aboard the Heart of Gold spaceship. As Arthur observes a console, he sees a button that has the sign "Please do not touch this button." He presses it anyway and a sign lights up reading "Please do not touch this button again."

Video Games

• In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, signs are used to indicate where animal friend sections end. Trying to cross the sign while riding one (or assuming the form of one) will cause the poor creature to inexplicably disappear and provide an extra life balloon.
• In one town in Dragon Quest IX, there is a small plot of land being used for crops, in the middle of which is a sign saying "do not step on the crops". Naturally, due to its placement and the way you read signs in Dragon Quest games, the only way to read it is to step on the crops.
• EarthBound (1994):
  • You are warned of in one cave about "Falling Objects". Then the photographer drops from the ceiling to take a picture of you. Granted, he always drops from the ceiling.
  • In a similar light, after visiting the Giant Step, Captain Strong stops you on the way out because of the DO NOT ENTER sign outside the shack (the letters are big enough for the player to read). You have to then go to the Police Office to wrap that issue up and proceed to Twoson. Yes, this is part of the plot.
• Thanks to the use of tools (As well as a surprisingly wonky but in the player's favour text recognition), the second round of this Family Feud game has some... very bizarre signs given in its "Name a sign everyone seems to ignore".
  • "No Yodeling allowed" (Accepted as "Yield").
  • "No stealing pornography" (Accepted as "Stop").
  • "Pardon the walrus tusks" (Accepted as "Don't walk").
• Full Throttle plays with it. "Do not play in or around Dumpster, do not sleep in Dumpster, do not Kick Dumpster, Usage of this container for disposal of human remains in this container may violate health ordinances". Ben observes this after taking a nap in the dumpster, being disposed of in the dumpster, playing around in the dumpster, and kicking the dumpster.
• In the No Mercy campaign of Left 4 Dead, Bill sees a No Smoking sign and retorts with "That's a crock of shit!"
• In The Legend of Kyrandia Book 3: Malcolm's Revenge, one section involves navigating sheer-faced cliffs and waterfalls, and the only way to go is up or down with the aid of certain items. There are signs posted on each screen that inform what items are not allowed ("No climbing shoes", "No umbrellas", etc.) However, it's reverse psychology. The forbidden items are the items that will work.
• The Legend of Zelda: In any Zelda game, ignoring odd signs is considered wise.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past:
    • The game has a signpost warning people not to throw objects into an obvious circle of stones sitting nearby. Not only is doing so the only way to get an item required to beat the game, but in this game, signposts themselves can be lifted, making it far too tempting to obtain the item by throwing the signpost.
    • There's another sign that warns you to pay no attention to the man standing next to it. If you go up and talk to the man, he's silent. But if you steal his sign, he gets a bit annoyed and starts following you around...
  • The treasure chest and fishing minigames in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are hinted to have banned items; these items can be acquired and used to your advantage. (However, in the case of the sinking fishing lure, you do get a notice on your catch saying it was caught with an illegal lure.) But in that case, you can make it legal.
• Parodied in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. In Meribia, there's a sign on one house that's blocked by a bunch of flowers, making it impossible for anyone in your team to read. After Kyle joins the team, you can bring him to examine the blocked sign. Kyle resolves to find out what the sign says by walking through the flowers and destroying them. So what does the sign say? "Please don't step on the flowers".
• In MadWorld, you can impale a mook in the head with a sign. Guess what the sign warns you about? There are other signs posted near a ledge warning about the deep water below, almost daring you to throw enemies in.
• Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (along with its GBA remake, Magical Quest Starring Mickey and Minnie) has a notable inversion of the trope. In the Fire level, the second level to be specific, Mickey (or Minnie, if the player decided to play as her in the GBA remake) arrives at a glass pane containing a fireman's suit that has a sign above it stating that, if there is a fire, someone has to break the glass. As if on cue with his/her entry, a block falls down and smashes the glass and has the fireman's outfit land near Mickey/Minnie, earning him/her the outfit.
• In Megaman Sprite Game, early on in the game you see a sign that warns you of the legal repercussions of stepping off the path. In order to get close enough to the sign to read it, you need to step off the path. Rather infamously, stepping off the path at any point in the game triggers the Bad Ending. See here.
• Metal Gear:
  • In Metal Gear Solid, some of the armory's rooms have the words "No Smoking" in big letters, and if you equip the cigarettes... well, it speaks for itself.
  • Any time Snake smokes in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots there is a "no smoking" sign behind him.
• Mother 3:
  • A sign obstructing the scenery warns you not to obstruct the scenery by posting signs.
  • After the Time Skip, a sign beyond a flowerbed begins to admonish you for stepping on the flowers in order to read it, before conceding that it's really the fault of whoever put the sign up in the first place.
• In Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, there's a post-it note that reads, "Rotten Floorboards! Watch your step" except Nancy has to step right on the rotten boards to get a clear view of the sign.
• Parodied ruthlessly in The Neverhood. After draining the lake in the second section of the game, it's possible to go down into the empty canyon and see the drain itself. Huge signs are placed all around it: "WARNING! DO NOT JUMP INTO THE DRAIN! YOU WILL DIE!" Klaymen can choose to ignore the signs and leap right in, and sure enough...
• In the first Oddworld game, inside Rupture Farms, there are various signs of this kind. For instance, near the beginning, "NO TALKING! To fellow employees", referring to the game mechanics of Gamespeak. Indeed, if the player DOES try to talk to one of his fellow employees who is next to a Slig, and the employee responds, the Slig will shoot and kill him. Obviously, Rupture Farms takes their no-talking policy very seriously.
• Paganitzu: Inscriptions can be found on the wall, giving clues to the game. However, some of them are spoofs of well-known signs, such as "No shirt, no shoes, no service".
• Pokémon Red and Blue. "Don't touch the poster in the Game Corner. There's no secret switch behind it!"
• In Portal 2, a sign in 1950s Aperture warns you not to fall down an elevator shaft. Sure enough, the only way to proceed is to portal-fling yourself by falling down the elevator shaft.
• Revolution X has this, in which Helga writes a bunch of "do nots" on a chalkboard, these include stuff like, "Do not open secret areas", "Do not collect powerups", etc.
• Sam & Max: Freelance Police:
  • In Sam and Max Save the World, there's a sign above the freezer in Bosco's store that reads 'Tongues Placed on Freezer Become Property of Bosco'.
  • In Sam and Max: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, the great grand-dads of Sam and Max are about to intrude on the maiden chamber of tomb guardian's daughter Nefertiti. The sign, naturally, is in hieroglyphics:
    Nefertiti: Hold it right there, Buckos! Can't you read hieroglyphics?!
    Maximus: It's a tern, and a leaf.
    Nefertiti: Exactly. Turn, and leave!
• In The Sims 3, one of the towns features a river that happens to pass by the local cemetery, where there is a "No Fishing" sign posted on the river bank. If a highly skilled angler goes to that specific place between the hours of midnight and 4:00 am, s/he can, with the correct bait, catch the elusive Deathfish. Not only does the Deathfish have a high simoleon value if sold, it's one of the two ingredients used by a highly skilled chef to make Ambrosia, which makes its eater grow somewhat younger.
• In the cutscene that plays when you first enter the beach room of Stay Tooned!, Frank says this to Schmooze, Scoops, Fiddle, Pixel, and Chisel when they relax on the beach, ignoring a nearby sign that says, "PRIVATE BEACH NO TRESPASSING". When the toons refuse to move, Frank beats them up and buries them up to their heads in the sand.
• Super Animal Royale has a "no dancing" sign (well, it depicts a silhouette of a Super Fox doing what could be loosely interpreted as dancing) near the welcome center fountain where you spawn during the pre-match login period. You can expect to see multiple players dancing right in front of it at any given time. Doing it during an actual round nets you one of your very own to smack people with! There are also "no dancing" signs in the Health Juice Factory, which happens to be staffed by the same crabs that will do the Crab Rave dance if you dance near them anywhere else on the island. Try that here, and they'll scold you with a Pictorial Speech-Bubble of the sign.
• The Are You Afraid of the Dark? adventure game The Tale of Orpheo's Curse has a few instances.
  • There are five wardrobes in the basement.
    • Do not open until Winter (contains coats, one of which you can examine).
    • Do not open until Halloween (contains a puppet, which tries to goad you into looking in Wardrobe Five).
    • Do not open until Elevator Day (an elevator which takes you back to the wax museum).
    • Do not open until Monster Day (contains five monster masks which unlock Wardrobe Five if examined in a certain order).
    • Do not open EVER! If you try and open it, you will be dragged inside by a bunch of clothes.
  • There's also another door that says you'll be sorry if you open it. You'll get caught by the Neanderthal Man if you do so.
• In Undertale, the Ruins have signs warning you to stick to the path and not step on the leaves, each of which can only be read by not doing as the sign says. This is actually a clue about how to solve the puzzle. The path through the leaves on the lower floor lines up with the correct way to walk across the area on the floor above. Walking on the floor above where the leaves are causes you to fall through.
• Wild ARMs uses this gag in Berry Cave. You come across a notice that says 'Do not destroy this sign'. Guess what you have to do in order to continue.

Visual Novels

• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All: When Phoenix and Maya investigate a really dirty and greasy cafeteria, Maya notices that apparently no-one cares about the "Keep our cafeteria clean" sign. Her suggestion is a bit more threatening:
  Maya: Clean it or die!
• In Daughter for Dessert, Lily doesn't see the sign stating that only paying guests are allowed to use the hotel swimming pool...because she climbed over the fence to get there.

Web Animation

• Happens in RWBY with the cave where the Giant Scorpion emerges from. It has old drawings of people attacking the monster with sticks and spears. This could signify that the monster had been in the cave since the original war with the Grimm and warning people to stay away. Unfortunately, since the symbols may hint that there may be ruins in the cave, it may double as Schmuck Bait.
• An intro skit in Sanity Not Included parodies the trope.
  Gray SPARTAN: No petting the recycling bin!
• Walrusguy: in Link gets a job at Gwonam's restaurant so he can buy a Playstation 3, Link gets a job at Squadallah Burger, which has a sign stating that they only serve burgers. Despite this, King Harkinian, Mario and Luigi, Light Yagami and Mario's floating head all try ordering completely unrelated food.

Webcomics

• Actually inverted in Alice, in which the title character actually ignores the sign.
• Apricot Cookie(s)!: Right after Jammy Smasher takes out her concealed bird to face the Director, he points out a sign to her that reads, "no birds".
• One Cyanide and Happiness animated short features two policemen brutally enforcing a sign labeled "Do Not Read", and another nearby sign, "No babies".
• Girl Genius:
  • If they'd looked closer, maybe that invading army would have noticed the sign on the gates to Mechanicsburg: "Trade Entrance. Invade in Front".
  • Also, there is a chewing-gum machine in Castle Heterodyne with a sign saying "Poison — Illiteracy Reduction"; people who can't read the sign will eat the chewing-gum and die.
  • And aboard Castle Wulfenbach, a bubbling green laboratory pool labelled "DO NOT DRINK". Moloch Von Zinzer evidently ignores this directive with no ill effects.
• Never Satisfied: Please no parkour.^note lifehack: signs that say "please" are a suggestion and not a requirement
• Princess Pi subverts this in one comic. Bottle Blonde tries to remind patrons of Burger Yellowbellied Sapsucker that they can't break any rules, because "There's a sign that says so!" She then points to a plaque reading simply, "The Sign That Says So".
• During the "Pirates of the Oceans Unmoving" arc of Sluggy Freelance, a flashback shows the time when Torg bought Bun-Bun from The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday. Finding exactly what he's looking for, for just under what he could afford to pay, he's smart enough to realize where he is, so he then asks the proprietor for a gorgeous, bikini-clad girlfriend for the single dime he had left. The proprietor then silently points to a sign that reads "Attempting to abuse Magical Shop's magicalness will incur a 10 cent penalty".
• When the cast of Yosh! visits Japan, the lead female is assaulted by flash perverts in a park, using a classic Japanese tag-team trick, where one sneaks up behind a woman and lifts her shirt, while the other is hidden in front with a camera. After she's "dealt" with the two, Yosh comments that there should be signs warning against such assaults. Cue a frame showing several signs hanging and standing all over the park, reading "Warning: Beware of Perverts". In Japanese.

Web Videos

• Joueur du Grenier: At the beginning of the DC Comics games review, after the two Wanted Posters are ripped off, underneath is a note saying "Please do not rip away the posters, thanks."

Western Animation

• In The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Remote", a sign in Elmore Mall's parking garage reads "Strictly no Kung-Fu in this car park" right before the Watterson family gets in a kung-fu style brawl over the new TV remote Nicole just bought.
• A scene from Arthur which became a meme has Arthur hanging up a sign that says "ARTHUR'S ROOM D.W. NOT ALLOWED. MARY-MOO COW IS A BAD SHOW!!" only for D.W. to declare "That sign can't stop me, because I can't read!"
• In one episode of Ben 10, Grandpa Max takes Ben and Gwen to see a roadside attraction that is built up as something amazing. They are also told to mind the signs. When they finally go to see it, they pass several warning signs about things not to do to it. It turns out to just be a gigantic ball of rubber bands. Ben ignores the warning signs, and Gwen doesn't stop him because she also found it disappointing. It turns out there actually was a good reason for the signs. The giant ball of rubber bands is also a prison for an electrical monster which is unleashed by Ben playing with it.
• In the MGM Captain and the Kids cartoon "Petunia Natural Park", the Captain contemplates on feeding a sad-looking bear despite a "Don't Feed the Animals Sign". He decides to give him a sandwich, only for bear to turn out to be a cop in disguise who proceeds to beat the Captain with his billy club.
• Chowder and Mung once hid behind a sign that forbade hiding behind it. Not that the sign would be a good hiding spot regardless of what it read.
• The Critic:
  • In a car chase between Jay and a studio exec in LA, the freeway sign reads "High-Speed Chases use Diamond Lane".
  • Jay talks to a cab driver. The driver (suitably foreign) says "Look at sign!" It reads "Driver knows only three words of English."
  • After Jay imagines the Statue of Liberty undressing for him, a policeman points at a sign reading "No fantasizing about statue".
• Dexter's Laboratory:
  • A sign on a fence has a "stranger" drawn and a forbidden red line. A "stranger" looking exactly like it goes in, thus showing he was obviously breaking the law. Except he was actually a gardener.
  • Similarly, the door to Dexter's room has several signs that say or otherwise mean "No Dee-Dees". They're only there to let the audience know she doesn't read them.
• The Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "Stop, Look, and Ed" used these as part of the plot. Eddy doesn't want to follow the rules and convinces the other kids to ignore signs as well. Also, Ed goes under some grass instead of on it due to a "Keep off the Grass" sign, and Edd is forced to concede "Well, I suppose technically that's not on the grass...".
• Family Guy:
  • When Peter and Lois are buying fake documents on the black market in Cuba, they realize they have no money and Peter asks the cashier if they would accept bits of string instead. The cashier replies, "Sorry, store policy" and points to a sign noting... that they don't accept bits of string.
  • In "E. Peterbus Unum," after creating a micronation out of his house and lawn, Peter flaunts his newfound diplomatic immunity by ignoring a "Keep Off the Grass" sign (and singing a blatant parody of "U Can't Touch This").
• Fillmore!: In "A Forgotten Yesterday", Fillmore is on a jetski in X's lake, and almost crashes into a buoy mounted with a sign that reads "Watch Out For Floating Signs".
• Futurama:
  • In the episode "The Farnsworth Parabox", Fry and Bender need to move through the Planet Express office undetected. Bender rips the hatch off a superheated steam pipe, above which is a sign that reads, "No Crawling Around". They climb in and, well...
  • In "My Three Suns", while delivering a package to the emperor of Planet Trisol, Fry drinks from a random bottle. Then it turns out that the Trisollians are a water people, and Fry drank the emperor! Luckily, natives practice Klingon Promotion, which makes Fry the new emperor, and the recipient of the package. It contains a sign that says, "Do Not Drink The Emperor", which Fry hangs up next to dozens of signs surrounding the spot where the bottle was, all written in alien languages. "This got here just in time!"
  • In "Three Hundred Big Boys", Leela goes swimming with a whale with a swimsuit filled with rotten fish as a part of a Zany Scheme. After she dives in, a banner reading, "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE WHALE" is seen. Leela's suit is eaten. "The suit was ugly! Whale biologist".
  • "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" begins with Bender in front of Fry's bedroom door with a ton of signs on it telling him not to enter; Bender resonds with: "I choose to not understand these signs" and enters anyway.
• The Hair Bear Bunch: In "Raffle Ruckus", Hair Bear, having won the zoo in a raffle and now taking on a zookeeper's responsibilities, admonishes some visitors about not reading a "Do Not Feed The Animals" sign after Fumbo the elephant gets his trunk tied up in a fence post reaching for a visitor's peanut.
• Justice League:
  • In "The Brave and the Bold", while in a lab, Flash tries offering a banana to a gorilla in a cage (unaware that it's Gorilla Grodd, the main villain of the episode), only for the angry scientist to snatch it away and point out the "Don't feed the animals" sign.
  • In "A Better World", Flash ignores a "Please Don't Pick the Flowers" sign and picks one. Poison Ivy calls him out on it.
• Kim Possible uses this when Ron offers Kim and Monique a pickle in the Club Banana store. Monique points out the sign "No Food, Pickled or Otherwise".
• Hilariously done in the Looney Tunes short "Cat-Tails for Two". When the cat George is knocked overboard after being fooled by Speedy Gonzales, his friend Benny scolds him by pointing to the sign, saying, "George, can't you read? It says No Fishing!" (It actually says "No Swimming"; Benny clearly can't read.)
• The Merrie Melodies cartoon "A Day at the Zoo" had an old lady at a zoo trying to sneak some peanuts to a monkey. He throws them back at her and shouts "Hey, sister! Can't you read?!", holding up the "do not feed the animals" sign for emphasis.
• Mixels: In "Every Knight Has Its Day", there are two signs for this purpose: "Gassy Mud For Mixamals Only" (Found right after Mixadel is thrown into the mud pit by angered Mixamals) and "You Can't Come In Here", when Paladum is not allowed in the zoo by the gatekeeper.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", when Pinkie Pie is about to burst into song, Gilda shows her there is an actual "no singing" sign in Griffonstone (a barred picture of a singing griffon). This puzzles Pinkie to no end, as ponies in Equestria are free to start singing at the drop of a hat wherever they go, and often do so.
• In the Peanuts special Snoopy, Come Home, Snoopy is continually frustrated by signs that prevent him from going where he wants and doing what he wants, either in general or because he is a dog. Snoopy is actually happy with the last one he sees because it is at the building his previous owner lived and he can use it as an excuse (to break it to her gently) why he cannot to return to her. Snoopy loves both his previous owner and Charlie Brown, but he just isn't particularly thrilled at the thought of living with her other pet, a cat.
  (Okay, all together now!) ♫Nooooooooooooooo dooooooooooogs alloooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwed...♫

  ♫Or biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrds...♫
• Rocko's Modern Life: Rocko, looking for a parking space, finds an open one with a "Don't even THINK about parking here" sign next to it. He contemplates for a moment, and a nearby traffic cop immediately issues him a citation.
• The Simpsons has used this gag several times:
  • In "Homer the Vigilante", Herman shows Homer a "miniature version of the A-bomb" which "the government built in the fifties to drop on beatniks". Homer then goes into a day dream sequence where he rides the bomb a la Dr. Strangelove onto a group of beatniks only for it to cut back to reality where he's actually riding the displayed bomb. Herman then points out the adjacent sign reading "DO NOT RIDE THE BOMB".
  • There's also an instance early on in "Homer's Triple Bypass", when he begins a quiet prayer to God and is shushed immediately by the nurse, who points to a sign reading "NO PRAYING".
  • When Homer is injured in a prison rodeo in "Pokey Mom", he is treated in the prison's medical facility. When Marge remarks that he's being very stoic about the situation, he says he can't complain, then points out a sign saying "No Complaining". The doctor says that the sign's only for the prisoners, so Homer starts letting it all out: "Oh, I hurt so much! And my job is so unfulfilling..."
  • In "Lost Our Lisa", Lisa is trying to ride the bus to see a museum exhibit:
    Lisa: Excuse me, when does the bus get to the museum?
    Bus Driver: [points to sign reading "Do not talk to driver"]
    Lisa: Sorry, it's just that this is the first time I...
    Bus Driver: [taps repeatedly on the sign]
    Lisa: End of the line?! I thought this was Bus 22!
    Bus Driver: Yep, Mondays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays it's the 22-A.
    Lisa: 22-A?!? But that doesn't...
    Bus Driver: Don't make me tap the sign.
  • In "Coming To Homerica", in order to protect himself from Homer, Bart hid behind a sign reading "Report Child Abuse".
  • When they made a Parody of The Da Vinci Code, Lisa entered a place that had a sign forbidding it. Under it, there was another sign alternatively allowing it, stating it was a sign, not a cop.
  • In "Duffless", when Homer got lost inside a labyrinth, he tried to climb his way out but got electrocuted. He then found a sign stating it was electrified. Out of anger, he punched it and got another shock. He then found a sign reading "Signs also electrified".
  • During a flashback in "Lisa's Sax", 5-year-old Bart is trying to get adjusted with his new school. On his home he was skipping on the school yard and Groundskeeper Willie starts yelling at him in a thick Scottish accent. Bart not understanding him continues to skip and Willie angrily asks him "Don't you understand English?" while pointing to a sign reading "ACH! KEEP OFF THE GRASS!"
  • In "The Homer They Fall", Bart is wearing a fancy Batman-style utility belt and the bullies are chasing him. He presses the belt's "Emergency" button, which gives off a siren (telling the bullies his location) and shoots off a flare which parachutes to the ground with the words "Need Help Call Police" on the 'chute. When the bullies run up to him Bart says "Can't you read? Call the police!"
  • In the "Treehouse of Horror XV" segment "Four Beheadings and a Funeral", as Homer flees the opium den he throws people to slow his pursuers. Moe tells him to obey the sign, "No Tossing Addicts".
  • In the "Treehouse Of Horror IX" segment "Hell Toupée", Snake starts smoking while in the Kwik-E-Mart, with Apu saying "You cannot smoke in here, sir. Please, the sign is clearly posted, sir.", pointing to a tiny "No Smoking" sign surrounded by more massive cigarette ads. In this segment, Springfield has a "three-strikes" law", and since this is Snake's third strike, he's executed by the police.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Graveyard Shift", Squidward is closing up shop at the Krusty Krab and puts up the CLOSED sign just as Tom walks up. He asks if they're open, to which Squidward tells him to read the sign. Tom then immediately makes an order.
  Tom: Are you open?
  Squidward: Read the sign.
  Tom: [beat] I'll have a Krabby Patty Deluxe, and a Double Chili Kelp Fries!
  Squidward: No, you won't!
• Timon & Pumbaa:
  • Parodied in one episode, when the pair narrowly escape a piranha infested river with Timon saying that there should be a warning sign. Pumbaa replies "Like this one?" and points out a plain looking sign next to them saying "Warning: Piranhas". Timon tries to save face by saying the sign should be bigger and Pumbaa points out an even bigger sign with spotlights and the same word written in lights.
  • And that one time when the two are in a runaway jeep headed toward a cliff (It Makes Sense in Context). There's dozens of signs on the path leading to the cliff, and they just crash right through them. CLIFF AHEAD! *smash* STOP NOW! *smash* SERIOUSLY! *smash* THESE SIGNS *smash* ARE EXPENSIVE! *smash*
• Total Drama World Tour: A Hawaiian man asks the cast if they has read the signs that say to not throw pineapples into the volcano after Heather had done just that. Unfortunately, the peanut gallery was standing in front of one, and Owen was using the other as a backscratcher. Predictably, the volcano erupts.
• In the Tex Avery cartoon Who Killed Who?, a detective ignores the "Do Not Open Till X-Mas" sign on a door and tries to force it open. Santa Claus himself shows up to admonish him: "Can't you read?"
• In one episode of X-Men: Evolution, Rogue gets angry with Kitty for phasing through the bathroom door while she's in it, ignoring the sign.
  Rogue: [kicking Kitty out] The sign says "Occupied"!
  Kitty: Sorry! Hey, who can read this early in the morning?

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