Need Fun!

I don’t get it. Is the billboard telling me I need fun in Hulk/Caveman language? Does Roper’s need fun people to facilitate a positive atmosphere and therefore generate more customers? Does the billboard proclaim that people in general need to have fun in their lives? Is there really someone (like Mr. Norman Fell in Three’s Company) named Roper? Or does the place belong to all people who rope things, in which case the apostrophe is misplaced? This is what I’m asking you.

16 Comments

  1. jest me on July 13, 2010 at 6:26 pm

    No, just another person who thinks all punctuation marks are interchangable. I mean, why use a question mark to end a question. (::wink wink::) I like your analyses better, though.

  2. Richard on July 13, 2010 at 6:48 pm

    Ugh, yeah, this drives me nuts every time I cross the Bong bridge into Superior. I think it’s just bad use of punctuation. It just sucks that it’s the first thing most people see when entering my home town…

  3. TeeDee on July 13, 2010 at 7:46 pm

    And while we’re discussing bad punctuation and such…here’s some glaringly bad such: why is every word on the sign except “bull” capitalized?

  4. spy1 on July 13, 2010 at 9:15 pm

    Like the sign coming north into Hinckley on 35 for Tobie’s “carmel” rolls. Ugh. They refuse to change it.

  5. mrashley on July 14, 2010 at 5:06 am

    Roper is a family name.

  6. Dennis on July 14, 2010 at 5:35 am

    NEED PROOFREADER!

  7. Grammar Nazi on July 14, 2010 at 5:37 am

    Yes, punctuation and capitalization can definitely cause confusion. For example, I can’t figure out how to appropriately comment on this post. Should it be:

    a) Who cares?
    b) Who cares!!
    c) WHO CARES!!!
    d) WhO cArEz?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

  8. -Berv on July 14, 2010 at 7:48 am

    Grammar Nazi, you need fun!

  9. Lithis on July 14, 2010 at 8:28 am

    There’s an ad for North Dakota in the Skywalk system that keeps bothering me. The font size keeps changing, but it does so in the middle of words: “I looked for peace within.”

    Not only did the designer change the font in the middle of words, but they split the word “within” into “wit” and “hin”! Does it mean approximately a gallon of wit?

    At least it’s not as bad as “Need Fun!”

    (I can’t exactly replicate the formatting in this comment, but hopefully the bold gets the point across.)

  10. Paul Lundgren on July 14, 2010 at 8:44 am

    So, has anyone been to Roper’s when the mechanical bull is actually in operation? I’ve been there twice and it has been tucked away both times. Of course, that didn’t stop Tomasz from seeking it out and climbing on it.

    Hey, he needed fun.

  11. spy1 on July 14, 2010 at 9:14 am

    Not to be confused with Goatropers Bar in Farming, west of St. Cloud.

    https://www.goatropersbar.com/index.html

  12. L.T. on July 14, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    Perhaps elipses in place of exclamation mark would have proved more enticing and less desperate. Though I am self-accused for using elipses to excess…

  13. burgerdogbo on July 14, 2010 at 2:43 pm

    Undoubtedly, the client (saloon) had the thought and copy correct, and the billboard company screwed it up. Or one would hope.

    Maybe sign painters only have a limited amount of punctuation in their kits – like those sidewalk signs you see that use backward 3’s for E’s, and so on.

  14. speechie on July 15, 2010 at 8:23 am

    The one that bothers me the most is the tattoo shop in Superior’s East End that has a neon sign declaring “Tattoo’s.”

  15. Paul Lundgren on July 15, 2010 at 8:32 am

    Perhaps that place was founded by Hervé Villechaize.

  16. Barrett Chase on July 15, 2010 at 9:03 am

    I think it would be fun to ride some of those mechanical bull drink specials.

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