Remember when you were a kid and instead of paying attention in school, you were busy writing a note about virtually nothing, to pass off to a friend before next period? My friends and I were so awesome, we literally had spiral notebooks we exchanged between classes. And these weren’t just notes–we had a “hotness rating system” in the back, with each of the boys in the school listed and their relative grades right next to their names. Needless to say, if anyone ever managed to take said book from one of us, all hell would have probably broken loose, and the school probably would have been on lockdown until the culprit came forward.
The days of note passing in school (I would imagine) are gone, seeing as smartphones rule the world and texting is the preferred means of communication. Or you send an email. Or you send a Facebook message. And I bet kids don’t even know how to do cool, origami-fold jobs like we did back in the day!
With the days of note writing and passing in the past, thank goodness there are at least SOME people keeping the history of notes alive.
Enter Passive Aggressive Notes.
PAN is a collaboration of entertaining post-its, banners, cards, and any other form of written communication, in which people express their discontent with any number of situations. While the author acknowledges that not all notes on the site are “passive” per-say, they all share a common sense of frustration.
For instance, check out this chick. Sometimes, you just gotta let your neighbors know they vacuum too often. Or how about this guy, who is so frustrated with his neighbors Hydrangea plant that he had a professional sign made to put up on his lawn about the neighbor? Then of course, there’s the note we are all somewhat familiar with: when someone at work is eating your stuff and you intend to nail that bitch! You don’t mess with someones Girl Scout Cookies! EVER!
There is a plethora of websites to post funny finds, from Facebook Fails to Rich Kids of Instagram, to Whiny blurbs at White Whine. For whatever reason, society has made the comprehensive decision that making fun of other people is not only accepted, but condoned.
I feel like it all started with the whole scenario we are all familiar with: you know, someone trips and falls on his face, and you instinctively laugh before you even ask if he’s okay. What does a circumstance like this suggest about our culture? Are we all assholes? Are we insensitive to a person’s well-being?
Personally, I like to think that in any given situation, it is ideal to find some sort of comedic value. Laughing, teasing, and making other people laugh at the expense of others may be, in some ways, trivial or even frowned upon. Even if an unfortunate circumstance occurs, sometimes finding the silver lining is what we need in order to persevere; and I think I speak for a lot of us when I say, the greatest silver lining (and best cure-all!) one can count on is laughter.
