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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Don't Eat Your Friends on the Hong Kong Subway

Eating food is not permitted on Hong Kong subway trains. In the past, passengers disregarding this rule has led to clashes between mainland Chinese and Hongkongers. So last year I was not surprised to see inside a Hong Kong subway station a sign with the English message:
Inside paid areas, enjoy the ride.
When outside, enjoy your food. Thank you!
However, I was a bit surprised by the accompanying graphics:

a hamburger holding hands with a large smiley face inside a subway station as the smiley face imagines later eating the hamburger friend outside of the station

Yes, a friendly hamburger is holding hands with a smiley face inside a subway station while the smiley face imagines later eating the hamburger outside of the station. Well, as long as you are following the rules ... And is this so different from the habits of praying mantises?

Hong Kong is not the only place an anthropomorphized hamburger has met a gruesome demise. For a similar but much more, dare I say, tasteless example, it would be hard to beat Mayor McCheese's* appearance on the adult animated sitcom Family Guy (warning: graphic violence) here.

Anyway, please do not eat food on the Hong Kong subway. And if you are a hamburger riding the subway, you should consider staying on it as long as you can, no matter what your friends may say.

That poor burger.



*If you are not familiar with Mayor McCheese, see the old McDonald's advertisements here and here. As a bonus, the second advertisement includes a large number of anthropomorphized hamburgers.

Added note: It just occurred to me that I ate a burger for dinner today. For what it is worth, it was a vegetarian burger, and it did not smile at me.

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