GagBase Logo Explore

Write 'No Smoking' in Arabic on the Oil Tanker Meme

This is a single-panel comedy meme. The top section features a text dialogue exchange where a boss asks an employee to write the phrase 'No smoking' in the Arabic language on a diesel fuel oil tanker, and the employee agrees to the request. The bottom section shows a photograph of the tanker itself: instead of the Arabic translation of 'No smoking' being printed on its side, the literal English text 'NOSMOKING IN ARABIC' is displayed directly under the 'DIESEL FUEL' label, serving as a humorous, absurdly literal interpretation of the boss's instruction.
Make

Dialogue

Boss: could you write “No smoking” in Arabic on this oil tanker?
Me: sure

Text content

36,000 Its, DIESEL FUEL, NOSMOKING IN ARABIC

Overview

This is a single-panel comedy meme. The top section features a text dialogue exchange where a boss asks an employee to write the phrase 'No smoking' in the Arabic language on a diesel fuel oil tanker, and the employee agrees to the request. The bottom section shows a photograph of the tanker itself: instead of the Arabic translation of 'No smoking' being printed on its side, the literal English text 'NOSMOKING IN ARABIC' is displayed directly under the 'DIESEL FUEL' label, serving as a humorous, absurdly literal interpretation of the boss's instruction.

Origin notes

This meme originates from Reddit, with the original listed title being 'No Smoking'. It gained wide viral popularity across social media platforms for its relatable workplace humor, playing on the concept of extreme literal compliance or deliberate misunderstanding of work requests. The image uses a likely edited photograph of a mislabeled fuel tanker as the punchline for the simple text setup.

Similar memes

The image consists of two parts: a top text dialogue and a bottom visual. The top text reads: 'Dentist: Do you smoke or drink coffee? Me: I drink it Dentist:'. The bottom visual is a screenshot of Kermit the Frog, a green puppet character from The Muppets, with a wide-eyed, slightly confused expression—his eyes are large and round, and his mouth is slightly open, giving a look of skepticism or puzzlement. The humor arises from the ambiguous response 'I drink it' (which could refer to either smoking or coffee, though context implies coffee), leaving the Dentist's follow-up unspoken, paired with Kermit's reaction that mirrors the confusion or bemusement at the vague answer.

Dentist Asks About Coffee, Me's Ambiguous Response, Kermit's Reaction

The image consists of two par…

This is a humorous relatable meme about reactions to rising gas prices. The top text sets up the premise: gas prices have increased, and the image shows the poster's response. A real man is positioned on all fours on a concrete surface, with a car tire placed over each of his four limbs to make himself look like a car. The joke exaggerates how expensive gas has become, implying people are so desperate to save fuel money they will turn themselves into a car instead of driving a regular vehicle.

When Gas Prices Increase I Become A Car

This is a humorous relatable …

This is a two-panel funny meme. The top section shows a rear-view photo of a truck driving on a road, with text painted on the undercarriage of the truck that reads "TEST YOUR AIRBAG HERE", highlighted with a red circle. The joke is a dark humorous implication that if you rear-end this truck, your vehicle's airbag will deploy, which is literally what the text says. The bottom section features a cartoon drawing of a man laughing uncontrollably, paired with text that says "When truck driver have sense of humour".

Truck Driver's Airbag Test Joke

This is a two-panel funny mem…

This is an 8-panel meme edited from a scene of the animated show *SpongeBob SquarePants*, featuring the characters Man Ray and Patrick Star. Patrick is overlaid with a United States flag to represent American people. The joke follows Man Ray walking Patrick through a series of logical questions about motor fuel: he first confirms that gasoline is a liquid and a petroleum product, then points out that it logically should be shortened to 'petrol', but Patrick stubbornly rejects this conclusion and insists the fuel is called 'gas', mocking the linguistic difference between American English (which uses 'gas/gasoline' for motor fuel) and British/Commonwealth English (which uses 'petrol').

I just don't understand why Americans call petrol gas

This is an 8-panel meme edite…

This meme is a two-part collage combining a Google search screenshot and the popular three-wolves reaction template. The top section shows a Google search for the question "do cigarettes expire", with a satirical search result answer: "No, cigarettes don't expire, but the person smoking them does. Oct 27, 2006". This uses dark wordplay on the term "expire"—for products it means reaching a shelf-life end, while for living beings it means death, to highlight the health risks of smoking. The bottom section uses the three-wolves meme template, with each wolf labeled to represent different reactions: 1. Left wolf: "Smokers" with an angry, open-mouthed expression, reacting negatively to the joke. 2. Middle wolf: "Non-smokers" with a neutral, unimpressed look, indifferent to the quip. 3. Right wolf: "The person that wrote this" with a smug, amused expression, proud of the dark joke.

Cigarettes Don't Expire, But Smokers Do - Wolf Reaction Meme

This meme is a two-part colla…

A meme featuring two lines of text at the top: 'Nobody:' followed by 'BMW drivers in traffic :'. Below the text is a photograph of three individuals leaning over a counter, appearing to crowd or push forward. The meme humorously uses this image to satirize the stereotype that BMW drivers are impatient or pushy in traffic situations by implying they exhibit similar behavior when interacting with a counter.

BMW Drivers in Traffic Meme

A meme featuring two lines of…

A humorous meme featuring a black sign with yellow text that reads 'NO SMOKING NO DOGS' and 'AND ABSOLUTELY NO SMOKING DOGS!' below a graphic of a dog with a red prohibition circle over it. In the foreground, a real tan dog is shown blowing smoke from its mouth, creating a comedic contradiction by directly defying the sign's absurdly specific rule against smoking dogs. The image combines a real sign with a photo of a dog to emphasize the humor in overly restrictive or nonsensical regulations.

Smoking Dog Defies 'No Smoking Dogs' Sign

A humorous meme featuring a b…

This two-panel comparison meme humorously criticizes the asymmetric price adjustment behavior common among gas companies. The top panel features an extremely fast blue sports car speeding on a race track with lightning and smoke effects coming from its wheels, paired with text stating that gas companies immediately raise pump prices as soon as oil prices increase by just 1 cent. The bottom panel features a lethargic sloth moving at a glacial pace while clinging to a tree branch, paired with text stating that gas companies take an extremely long time to lower pump prices even when oil prices drop by as much as 5 dollars. The meme highlights the widespread consumer frustration with gas companies prioritizing profits by passing cost increases onto customers immediately while delaying passing on cost decreases for as long as possible.

Gas Companies Raise Prices Way Faster Than They Lower Them

This two-panel comparison mem…

This is a 4-panel comic meme with a delayed punchline, joking that people trying to abstain from one bad habit simply substitute it with other bad habits instead of cutting them out entirely. Each panel is labeled for a specific 'X Free Day', meaning the man is abstaining from that habit that day: 1. *Smoke Free Day*: The man sits at a table with a cup of coffee and a wine glass, no smoking. 2. *Alcohol Free Day*: The wine glass is removed, the man now smokes a cigarette while keeping his coffee. 3. *Coffee Free Day*: Coffee is removed, the man keeps smoking, and the wine glass returns. 4. *Masturbation Free Day*: When abstaining from masturbation, all three previous items (coffee, wine, and the cigarette) are all back, as the man substituted the forbidden habit with all his other addictions. It takes most viewers a moment to notice all addictions have returned, matching the original title's note that the joke isn't immediately visible.

Took Me A Minute Before I Saw It Addiction Substitution Comic

This is a 4-panel comic meme …

A 2x2 grid meme featuring anthropomorphized Madagascar island shapes with emotion-based wordplay. Top-left: Red Madagascar with an angry face labeled 'madagascar' (combining 'mad' and 'Madagascar'). Top-right: Yellow Madagascar with a smiling face labeled 'gladagascar' (combining 'glad' and 'Madagascar'). Bottom-left: Light blue Madagascar with a sad face labeled 'sadagascar' (combining 'sad' and 'Madagascar'). Bottom-right: Black background with a fuel gauge pointing to 'E' (empty), visually resembling the Madagascar shape, continuing the wordplay theme with 'E' as a prefix. The humor stems from anthropomorphism and puns on the island's name.

Madagascar Emotion Meme with Wordplay

A 2x2 grid meme featuring ant…

This is a 3-panel edited boardroom meme comparing relative gasoline (petrol) prices across different global regions, highlighting the unit discrepancy between litres (used in most countries) and gallons (used in the US). In the first panel, the representative for New Zealand/Australia angrily complains that $3.30 per litre of petrol is extremely expensive. In the second panel, the EU representative notes petrol prices in their region exceed €1.71 per litre, the China representative states ¥9.35 per litre is unreasonable, and the US representative dismisses all these complaints as overblown, claiming those prices are cheap compared to the US's $4 per gallon. The final panel shows the enraged NZ/AU representative throwing the US representative out of the office window, as $4 per gallon converts to roughly ~$1.06 per litre, which is drastically cheaper than all the other listed regional prices, making the US's lack of perspective on gas costs the punchline of the joke.

How I feel when I see Americans complaining about gas prices

This is a 3-panel edited boar…