Comments on: Toilet Signs around the world

Toilet Signs around the world

darsh — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:47:55 -0800

Toilet Signs from around the world... 59 of them. Number 22 struck me as particularly funny

By: bookwo3107

bookwo3107 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:52:44 -0800

So, what I learned from this is that if I went to Thailand, I'd know exactly what restroom to go to, but not if I went to a Thai restaurant. Convenient!

By: Xurando

Xurando — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:56:37 -0800

That's an askme question. Does holding your knees together keep the poop from coming out?

By: Schlimmbesserung

Schlimmbesserung — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:57:16 -0800

Wow! The world is flush with ideas.

By: Someone has just shot your horse!

Someone has just shot your horse! — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:03:11 -0800

I once got in big trouble for going into the wrong bathroom at a restaurant once. In my defense, how was I supposed to recognize the Thai word for "kitchen"?

By: Someone has just shot your horse!

Someone has just shot your horse! — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:03:50 -0800

(Erm, strike one "once". Your choice of which.)

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:07:51 -0800

Awesome. I should snap a picture from a local (gay)bar here in Madrid where the toilets are represented by very rough stick figure shapes similar to #31, but the only distinguishing feature is that the woman gets two dots for breasts/nipples.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:10:38 -0800

No, thanks. I'm continent.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:19:27 -0800

41 is good

By: isopraxis

isopraxis — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:21:42 -0800

My favorite bathroom signs: Hotdog for men's room, Taco for the Ladies.

By: ZaneJ.

ZaneJ. — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:25:10 -0800

Weird, looking at those made me have to take a shit.

By: porpoise

porpoise — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:27:22 -0800

I love that one from the Science Fiction Museum.

By: neilkod

neilkod — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:28:44 -0800

#20 is from LegoLand. Here is my pic of a LegoLand San Diego restroom sign.

By: Mike D

Mike D — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:30:14 -0800

Man if I were ever seized with the need in that #25 restaurant, they'd have to call for a clean-up in the hallway outside the bathroom doors! As a PS... I had a nasty experience a bazillion years ago as a Canadian air force brat in Germany in a restuarant when I assumed because "HERREN" had "HER" in it and "DAMEN" had "MEN" in it... well, the rest is pistory.

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:36:25 -0800

I gotta go #31 now

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:43:37 -0800

Oh great, yet another thing they do more stylishly in Paris.

By: Avenger

Avenger — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:45:50 -0800

what

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:46:30 -0800

Where's Costanza when you need him?

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:58:31 -0800

#37 (Pizza) wins.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:07:33 -0800

If one door is labeled Roosters or Cockerels or Cocks, the other should be labeled Hens or Pullets or [another rude word beginning with C] -- not Chicks. If one door is, however, labeled Chicks, the other ought to be labeled Dudes.

By: fermezporte

fermezporte — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:10:03 -0800

I once went to a restaurant in Chile that had bathrooms only distinguished by a picture of the sun or of the moon. I assume I was a moon because "la luna" is feminine, but I still wonder...

By: Tube

Tube — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:17:26 -0800

Thank God the Equal Rights Amendment wasn't ratified , or we would only have one sign!!

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:18:28 -0800

The restrooms at the Amsterdam Bar and Grill in Donald Westlake's Dortmunder books (which you all must read) are differentiated by pointers and setters. Astonishing how many people don't get that joke.

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:19:22 -0800

fermezporte, I've seen the same here in Spain.

By: extraheavymarcellus

extraheavymarcellus — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:20:55 -0800

Ah Baltimore. "I gunna go to da turlit and wrench this ull off ma hands before we go Downy Ocean, hon."

By: quin

quin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:32:57 -0800

That is one well-hung starfish.

By: Planet F

Planet F — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:39:52 -0800

I love #41. Classic. I'm kind of sad, though, that the bathrooms from my old yaght club weren't featured. The loos had "inboards" and "outboards" printed on the doors. boo :(

By: jabberjaw

jabberjaw — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:45:48 -0800

Most of these make more sense than quarter-moons and stars. You'd think the Sci-Fi Museum's toilets would've featured them?

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:57:21 -0800

Hey, I recognize one of those. Cool.

By: jmd82

jmd82 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:14:39 -0800

At my old restaurant, the men's and woman's bathroom had the opposite sex painted on the other side of the door. There were a lot of confused faces coming out of the bathroom wondering how they ended up in the wrong bathroom.

By: the littlest brussels sprout

the littlest brussels sprout — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:17:12 -0800

Does holding your knees together keep the poop from coming out? No. But that's obviously the universal symbol for "I HAVE TO PEE!" May be supplemented with hopping in place and/or whining.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:42:46 -0800

There's a chain Mexican restaurant NW of Phoenix, in one of the many many many strip malls, where the signs on the bathroom are labeled in Spanish to make it authentic-looking... only both the signs have spelling errors. You figure, in Phoenix of all places, that they'd get it right.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:45:57 -0800

ZaneJ: Weird, looking at those made me have to take a shit. Don't take any of mine... the weekend's coming up and I only have two left.

By: jamesonandwater

jamesonandwater — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:58:02 -0800

At my old restaurant, the men's and woman's bathroom had the opposite sex painted on the other side of the door One of the pubs near my parents' house used to have a waxwork of a man at a urinal just inside the door to the ladies' toilet. Even when you knew it was there it'd give you a start. Many an evening I passed watching woman after woman run out of the room, double-check the sign, look in again, triple-check the sign, etc.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:01:38 -0800

Raphael Carter's sadly defunct website had a good bit about renaming the bathrooms at sci-fi cons. Looks like archive.org still has it. Also, #16 is weirdly ambiguous. Is the triangle with the wide end high and forwards supposed to represent tits, broad shoulders, or a shirt? Is the one with the wide end low and forwards supposed to represent a dick, broad hips, or a dress? And what's #31, a special bathroom for people with no arms?

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:39:37 -0800

There was a time when I wanted to own a restaurant that specialized in sandwiches, which would also serve as a venue for local stand up and improvisational comedy. This is one of those many myriad fantasies that a young person allows oneself before they grow old and wrinkled and realize just how expensive and complicated fantasies actually are when they become reality. I'd love to have my own sandwich shop and comedy club, but I learned early on I didn't want to actually do any of the things necessary in order to obtain such a thing. Acquiring a liquor license for example. The red tape for that alone would be enough to make one throw up a little in their mouth. However, had I actually set forth to accomplish such a noble task, one of the requirements for the design of the place was going to be three fully functional and working rest rooms. One for men, one for women, one for other, and the signs would reflect that distinction, with a caveat on the third sign in fine print saying that anyone who is a male or a female enters the third restroom at their own risk. Of course, the red tape necessary for acquiring three restrooms is probably also enough to make one throw up a little in their mouth.

By: Maias

Maias — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:50:59 -0800

Yes, I was actually surprised that there were no transgender or intersex friendly signs there. Or perhaps that was what the sci-fi one was?

By: quin

quin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:56:14 -0800

At my old restaurant, the men's and woman's bathroom had the opposite sex painted on the other side of the door The Safehouse in Milwaukee does this as well. It's a lot of fun; watching drunks have that moment of panic as the try to reconcile the fact that to leave the bathroom, they have to go through a door that suggest that it leads into the ladies room.

By: fogster

fogster — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:18:23 -0800

#37, the pizza place, is hilarious, mostly because it appears quite innocuous. I also like the number of them that end up somewhat... anatomically-correct.

By: divabat

divabat — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:23:08 -0800

The one in my old university had a moustache for men's, and either a pair of red lips or high heels (forgot which) for ladies.

By: John Smallberries

John Smallberries — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:24:08 -0800

Restroom signage is a serious issue. I have a very traumatic memory from my early youth when my family went to dinner at a restaurant specializing in fried chicken. When I went to visit the facilities, I was confronted with doors labelled, obviously enough, "Roosters" and "Hens". And my six year old mind had not the slightest clue which one I was. My horrible trauma did NOT come from blundering into the wrong bathroom and being thereby embarassed. No, my calm and calculating little head led me back out into the restaurant - doing that peepee dance so many of these signs portray - and yelling out to my family "Am I a Rooster or a Hen?" Bad enough were the chuckles from the assorted patrons. Far far worse was the fact that my older brother was there, along with his best friend, and I had just handed them a big fat baseball bat of teasing to whallop me with. You can imagine the ensuing years, I expect. I know I can't forget them.

By: emyd

emyd — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:06:31 -0800

Oh no! #21, from the Science Fiction museum, is straight up wrong! In the ZW sex determination system, the heterogametic sex is female! Seattle mefites, let's make storming the science fiction museum and correcting the sign part of this weekends meetup, what do you say?

By: Joakim Ziegler

Joakim Ziegler — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:42:55 -0800

I was just at an office last night that had number 41 as a toilet sign, and it greatly amused me.

By: mdn

mdn — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:23:32 -0800

If one door is labeled Roosters or Cockerels or Cocks, the other should be labeled Hens or Pullets or [another rude word beginning with C] -- not Chicks. Nah, if one has a picture of a rooster, the other should have a picture of a cat...

By: otherthings_

otherthings_ — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:57:34 -0800

Years ago I heard rumors of a bar or restaurant, somewhere in California, I want to say Santa Cruz, that had restrooms labeled "Us" and "Them".

By: Zack_Replica

Zack_Replica — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:26:07 -0800

(...) and I had just handed them a big fat baseball bat of teasing to whallop me with. posted by John Smallberries at 4:24 PM on March 28 Oh, but you so set yourself up for these things! Batter up!

By: Wilder

Wilder — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:36:30 -0800

I once went to a restaurant in Chile that had bathrooms only distinguished by a picture of the sun or of the moon. I assume I was a moon because "la luna" is feminine, but I still wonder... posted by fermezporte at It's Catholic imagery from St Francis of Assisi, made popular in the USA through Zeferelli's movie.

By: Wilder

Wilder — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:37:41 -0800

sorry, link got borked, here

By: Catfry

Catfry — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:37:45 -0800

The one with the flame and the wave.. Which is one is what? I really don't know.

By: ifjuly

ifjuly — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:17:09 -0800

At Hot Doug's in Chicago, the sign for men is a hotdog in a bun and the sign for women is an empty bun. Uh huh.

By: brautigan

brautigan — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:41:11 -0800

Signs in Glasgow's Lighthouse.

By: tehloki

tehloki — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:15:25 -0800

I honestly think the pizza one is the clearest, most portable method of differentiating gender in bathrooms I've ever seen. Honestly? Instead of blue-stick-figure and pink-stick-figure-in-dress, why not a picture of a penis and a picture of a vagina?

By: athenian

athenian — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:27:49 -0800

Wow! My local cafe made it in. (#27) Thanks, darsh.

By: Mr.Encyclopedia

Mr.Encyclopedia — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:04:48 -0800

#31 is the one that makes the least sense to me. I assume six-line-person is female, but I can't really supply any logical reason why. Maybe the middle set of lines is a skirt? I just don't know. Also, as "clear and portable" pizza glyphs might be, I won't begrudge the classic stick figures when it comes to the split-second decisions sometimes necessary when determining the proper place for your bathroom emergency.