At first does this picture make sense to you or not?

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This is perhaps completely irrelevant... but it just kind of struck me two minutes ago. I went on facebook late this afternoon and saw this comic and thought... wow did he even read that. What an idiot. The reason I thought this was because I was thinking of it backwards (in a chronological sense) and thought they meant that Monday was far from Friday even though they are only seperated by two days. Then I looked at the lower one and thought Friday is THREE days from Monday. This should be reversed. Then I looked at it again like five minutes ago and thought... that makes sense... did he fix it or something!? Then I realized that I was reading it backwards. Maybe I'm just an idiot.


Wait a minute... I just looked at it again. They are the same days in both the top and the bottom word groups! So it's all about which difference between the two you think of which relates to the ordering of the words. It's just kind of hurting my head now. What's your guys' take on it?

Edit: Maybe this should be moved to off the wall... I'm not sure. Sorry mods if it should be.

It makes sense to me: clearly this is a person who hates his 9-5 40-hr job, and for some reason can't quit it and look for something else.

It made perfect sense to me. I had no problem getting it.

I spent my school years thinking like that, and had I been employed I might feel the same way.

Last edited by Skilpadde on 02 Dec 2014, 2:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

I made a week clock!

Now the first statement says FAR so we'll pick the further distance.

Here's a graphical representation of Monday-Friday furthest distance:



Now we'll do the second statement.

Why is Friday so near to Monday
Now it doesn't matter which one goes first... because the side of the chart that we go on will be the left side since it's where Friday and Monday are closest.

Here's a graphical representation of the Monday-Friday closest distance:




Now lets put little arrows demonstrating if we're going backwards or forwards as said by the picture.



So the black arrows mean time... and the Monday came first in the sentence followed by the Friday which is consistent. It SOUNDS backwards... but for consistency sake we'll say it's correct.

Now for the second sentence.



Again the arrows are consistent with chronology AND sentence structure.

I guess it's correct... But it still sounds wrong.

What if we make it so it sounds correct...

Why is Friday so far from Monday

And Friday so near to Monday

The first statement sounds correct... but it screws up the whole thing... I'll reverse the second statement too.


Why is Friday so far from Monday

And Monday so near to Friday

Perfect!


What if we switch BOTH of them.


Why is Monday so far from Friday

and Monday so near to Friday

Same error as the first switch.


So I guess the only permutation that makes perfect sense is:

Why is Friday so far from Monday

And Monday so near to Friday


Is there another correct sounding permutation? My week clock thing only disproved me further.

It's late... I think I'm just confusing myself more. In any case this is definitely off the wall. Sorry for sticking it in the wrong spot.

I go to school m-f....I got it right away

Yes it does make sense. If you go to school or work on the weekdays, it makes sense. My 4th grade teacher had a song about Friday. It went

Friday. Friday. Friday is my favorite day
Friday. Friday. Friday is my favorite day
Monday is a Bummer
Tuesday's always fair
Wednesday's getting better
Thursday is almost there
But Friday, Friday, Friday is my favorite day.

We would to sing this every Friday.

But when your weekends are on different days of the week than on Saturday and Sunday, this means nothing to you, especially if your weekends vary every week due to a different work schedule every time.

Friday is near Monday because it's three days away and Monday is four days away from Friday. When you go to school on Monday or work, it feels Friday is so far away from Monday. But when you get off Friday, you get two days off.

Also why is that Tuesday taking up so much space in the graph?

Just think of it like, in each sentence, the first day mentioned is the one you are in. So in the first sentence it is Monday today, and Friday is a long way away in the future. In the second sentence it is Friday today, and Monday is coming too soon.

Yes, it makes sense to me.
You just can't look at the distance between the days on a "modular" way. Assume first that you are on monday (so three days until friday if you don't count monday and friday) and then assume that you are on friday and you have two days until monday (again, excluding friday and monday).

I immediately understood what it meant because that's exactly how I feel all the time. If it said the opposite, it would still make sense, as it can be interpreted in two different ways whichever way it is written.

Your explanation makes sense. I made that whole chart thing at midnight last night... I was pretty tired so I think I was just making it more strange. There are two ways to look at it though... which is pretty interesting.

I didn't get it at first, took some extra time.

When I first read it I pictured a calendar and thought.. it's not far it's just back a few days.

The joke is about how time SEEMS to fly when you're having fun, and how long it SEEMS to take when you're doing something you hate. The funny part is when you hit the cognitive dissonance of measuring it in terms of days (hours in a day), with the assumption that one hour is the same length as any other. Harry Belafonte did a song about it in the fifties or maybe early sixties, "I'm On My Way to Saturday":
"Today's only Monday, and the hours drag along,
But soon comes the One Day when my cares and woes are gone!"
http://www.lyricsmania.com/im_on_my_way ... fonte.html

It did right away for the reasons mentioned. But what I have always though strange if people hate school or work why is Friday the best day?. On Friday you are still working.Should it not be Saturday and Sunday as favorite days when you are actually not working?

A very popular song was written about this psychological phenomenon way back in the day.

When you finally get home Friday afternoon/evening you still have the rest of the day free with the knowledge that two whole days of freedom are coming up. Friday is the point where all the good still is in front of you.
On Saturday Monday is already too close. "Sure, I've got today, but tomorrow already is Sunday and after that..."


That said, Saturday has always been my fave day of the week. It's just the cozy day of the week.