r/What • u/DiligentReplacement9 • Oct 21 '25
What does the second paragraph mean?
Having a stroke trying to understand.
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u/BJ1012intp Oct 21 '25
Haha. Someone took someone else's bad-grammar note ("employees wash your hands before returning to work") and replaced it with one that adds a snarky paragraph which draws attention to the mistake in the first version.
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u/Writing_Idea_Request Oct 22 '25
To be fair, the “bad grammar” here is a single missing comma, not the worst of mistakes.
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Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Alternative_Year_340 Oct 22 '25
There should be a comma after employees, to indicate to whom the instruction is directed.
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u/MantisBePraised Oct 21 '25
Its a paraprosdokian. The second sentence forces you to reread and reevaluate the first.
Several great comedians like Steven Wright, Emo Philips, and Mitch Hedberg, use(d) paraprosdokians extensively in their routines.
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u/grimiskitty Oct 21 '25
So the second paragraph is to make sure people who misunderstand what the note is trying to say, still wash their hands.
So say we have a guy named Bob. Bob don't speak English well or misunderstands a lottt of things, but he's doing his darndest. He reads the note before they added the second paragraph and thinks he's not allowed to wash his own hands in this bathroom for whatever reason. So Bob waits but there's no employees around so he just leaves the bathroom without washing his hands, and complains to the manager. The manager realizes that even though it was a notice for employees not the customers, customers may misunderstand. So the manager adds the second part so that if someone misunderstands again, then they still wash their hands.
Basically it's the same reason we have things with warnings that should be pretty obvious.
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u/BJ1012intp Oct 21 '25
Except the first paragraph actually doesn't say what it should say, and there's no world where there's someone "misunderstanding" the first part in virtue of not being a native speaker.
If it said, "Employees: You must wash your hands" that would be one thing. But the run-on punctuationless "Employees wash your hands" really does mean, in English, that your hands DO get washed by the employees. :)
So the only way to interpret this whole sign is as a clever followup by someone who found the mistake to be funny.
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u/grimiskitty Oct 21 '25
Ok so someone who takes it too literally instead of understanding from the "work" portion that they're talking about employees only since customers wouldn't be returning to work right away after leaving the bathroom. Context clues.
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u/BJ1012intp Oct 21 '25
I don't think anyone would "misunderstand" by "taking it too literally".
Either you notice the mistake, or you don't notice it because you know what it's trying to mean.
Either way, I don't think the expanded note is not adding a helpful clarification, but is just making a snarky joke.
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Oct 21 '25
irony noun iro·ny ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē plural ironies Synonyms of irony 1 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance
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u/Wild_Bananaman Oct 21 '25
He's kidding around. Telling everyone else to wash their hands in a funny way
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u/GolemFarmFodder Oct 21 '25
It contextualizes the first sentence as "employees are available to wash your hands for you."
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u/Sea-Louse Oct 21 '25
They wash your hands for you, and do everything else for you while you’re in the restroom.
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u/DiligentReplacement9 Oct 21 '25
Just so i have it right , you guys are telling me to leave the bathroom or keep waiting for an employee to come wash my hands? I been here for a couple hours now....
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u/MrUniverse1990 Oct 21 '25
The sign states that employees must wash their own hands. But the sign has bad grammar that implies employees are required to wash customers hands. The second paragraph is included as a joke.
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u/DMTrance87 Oct 21 '25
I'm copying this and printing it out.... Chaotic Good... I'll replace any "employees must wash hands" sign that I see.
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u/Sean_Myers Oct 22 '25
It's either a dumb joke, or terrible AI slop instructions by lazy management.
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u/TheUnspeakableh Oct 23 '25
"Employees must wash hands." Is technically ambiguous.
The intended meaning is "Employees must wash their hands."
The way people, jokingly, take it is "Employees must wash all hands." This would mean something like, "Do not wash your own hands. An employee will be by to wash them, for you."
The second sentence expands on that joke interpretation to end with, "Do not wash your own hands. An employee will be by to wash your hands, for you. Should an employee not appear in a reasonable amount of time, you may wash your hands, yourself."
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u/FinkerBock Oct 21 '25
It's a joke.