The trope “Don’t Dead Open Inside” came to the internet’s spotlight more than ten years ago when it was first used in a promo poster for The Walking Dead. The line, which initially made zero sense to anyone reading it line by line, perfectly captured ensued hilarity. It stirred a whole trend of memes featuring posters, boards and signs that played on the brink of making sense (if read counterintuitively) and making no sense (if read intuitively).
There’s a whole Reddit community dedicated to such oddly amusing linguistic mishaps known as r/deadopeninside. So get ready to roll your eyes, turn your head, read it twice and thrice, calling a friend and looking for answers on Google, because we have selected some of the most head-spinning examples below.
And if there’s anything we’re gonna learn from this post, it’s how not to overcomplicate your message. At any cost. Psst! Our previous post with hard-to-read signs can be found right here.