Silver Square

I’m a big fan of humorous t-shirts. If my place in society allowed me to wear them exclusively, I probably would. But I like Red Lobster and shiny things, so sometimes I find myself in situations where I need to wear a collar in order to fund my expensive lifestyle. The rest of the time, I turn to the Internet to clothe myself. In compiling this top 10, I turned to Noisebot and Bustedtees. Although both sites have some shirts on them that may not be suitable for viewing at work, the selected t-shirts below are all safe.

10. Push Button, Receive Bacon – Here’s an example of the power of context in design. These images by themselves don’t necessarily convey that pushing a button is going to produce warm air that you can hold your hands under. Fortunately we almost always see these images in a public restroom when we’ve turned around from the sink and are looking for a place to dry our hands. Since warm air seems more likely than bacon in a restroom, we understand what these images are saying.

9. Department of Redundancy Department –  I think of this shirt every time I stop at an ATM machine.

8. Out Standing in His Field - Need a way to subtly remind people that you excel?

 7. National Sarcasm Society – I absolutely love the message behind this shirt. If it we’re a little more legible, I would probably rank it higher.  You probably can’t read it, but the line at the bottom says Like We Need Your Support.

6. Team Building Exercise ‘99 – Wear this around your newer coworkers and assure them that they really missed out by not being here in ‘99. It’s particularly effective if you can get several people in your office to wear this shirt.

5. Without Me It’s Just Aweso – The great thing about this shirt is anyone can wear it. Some shirts can only be pulled off if you have the right personality for it, but this one is open to all contenders.

4. When Work Feels Overwhelming – Admittedly this is pretty dark humor, but the underlying message is positive. The things that seem so big today probably aren’t terribly important in the grand scheme of things.

3. Volunteering – You could buy this shirt as a way of criticizing something that takes up your time for no money. Instead I like to imagine people wearing it while they are actually volunteering at something. It’s a way to embrace the nature of selflessly giving of yourself without focusing on material reward. Or if you have blackness in your heart, you can wear it for the first reason.

2. Ask Me How I Tolerate Stupid Questions – I would be afraid to actually wear this shirt, but I love that it exists. Putting this shirt on is an explicit invitation for fools (and very clever people) to come talk to you. This should only be worn if you genuinely enjoy talking to strangers.

1. Never Forget – Because a society that forgets the mistakes of its past is doomed to repeat them in the future. When you find yourself thinking that maybe letting an asteroid crash into the earth wouldn’t be so bad, remember.