# "The End Of The World Is Nigh" sandwich boards. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264 "2009-02-24T20:31:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/1 "2009-02-24T20:31:46Z")
They’re common in tv and film but do people actually go around wearing sandwich boards with “The End Of The World Is Nigh” on them, and if so, for what purpose? Is it religious? ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/2 "2009-02-24T21:09:27Z")
I ran into [this colorful example](http://everything2.com/node/961432) in Chicago, and apparently he had several signs that he could rotate through. His manner reminded me of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patients, except that he had complete control over his body (although he walked with a bit of a shuffle). I would say his purpose was to make people aware of The Truth as he understood it. Not sure you’re going to get a factual answer unless someone who wears such a sign drops in, though. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/3 "2009-02-24T21:19:51Z")
I knew one guy who would do it at a Farmer’s Market. Totally sane other than being willing to wear a sandwich board. His focus was not so much “the” end is nigh, but “your” end is nigh - you never know when you’re going to die and you should make sure you’re ready for it. The only other sandwich board person I’ve seen had an anti-homosexual message clearly intended to create fights. I think they just wanted the attention. ---
**Author:** ![Grimpen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/82dd89/32.png) [@Grimpen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grimpen)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/4 "2009-02-24T22:38:22Z")
I’d look back a number of decades for the origin of this. Cartoons of a dog running off with a string of sausages lasted _much_ longer than open-air butcher shops – I think there are visual images that get established and linger long after the origin has faded. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/5 "2009-02-24T23:11:30Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > I knew one guy who would do it at a Farmer’s Market. Totally sane other than being willing to wear a sandwich board. Being willing to wear one _and_ feeling compelled to you mean! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/6 "2009-02-25T00:11:34Z")
My neighbor used to paint that sort of things on his house and car. We moved away very quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/7 "2009-02-25T01:14:24Z")
Why doesn’t anyone ever see a guy wearing a sandwich board depicting a dog running away with a string of sausages? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/8 "2009-02-25T01:27:52Z")
Are they really “common” in TV and film? I can’t remember ever seeing one in those media. I see them mostly in comic strips. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/9 "2009-02-25T01:30:37Z")
Plenty of nutcases with signs around here (New York), but few actual sandwich boards. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen one. The signs often go into minute detail, in very small print, about the conspiracy or impending end-times event or whatever it is the sign-bearer feels the need to warn his fellow New Yorkers of. I dont’ bother to read them. But sandwich boards, and signs in general, are so inefficient now that we’ve got the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/10 "2009-02-25T01:42:47Z")
An Gadaí, I once saw a guy with a sandwich board saying “The end of the world is nigh” standing outside Shankill DART station, in the early 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/11 "2009-02-25T01:52:39Z")
I can find examples from 1928, in the popular press. But, they become much more common in the 1940s and later. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/12 "2009-02-25T02:02:25Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Why doesn’t anyone ever see a guy wearing a sandwich board depicting a dog running away with a string of sausages? Or a guy wearing a sandwich board with a guy wearing a barrel painted on it, and a dog running past with the string of sausages. The guy in the barrel could be yelling “Repent!” at the dog. ---
**Author:** ![mutantmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@mutantmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mutantmoose)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/13 "2009-02-25T02:51:25Z")
I saw a guy wandering around with a sandwich board at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, London. It was just at the outset of the Iraq war but I don’t know if the message related specifically to that or was just a general message. On the board it just said: IT’S GONNA GET WORSE (for some reason I thought that was quite funny) ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/14 "2009-02-25T13:36:43Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > I ran into [this colorful example](http://everything2.com/node/961432) in Chicago, and apparently he had several signs that he could rotate through. His manner reminded me of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patients, except that he had complete control over his body (although he walked with a bit of a shuffle). I would say his purpose was to make people aware of The Truth as he understood it. Damn, I came into this thread to mention this guy. I lived in Chicago for years, and I would guess that I saw him about a third of the time whenever I had occasion to go to the Mag Mile. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/15 "2009-02-25T15:00:22Z")
We had a guy with not a sandwich board, but several signs on a pole. He gave up mobility for more signage and stood on the corner of a busy intersection holding the pole, turning it slowly so you could read everything while waiting at the light. Repent stuff, it was. He disappeared when the weather got hot last year and was not back – at least at the intersection I passed through – this year. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/16 "2009-02-25T16:00:15Z")
Anyone remember the DC board-wearin’ woman? She lapsed into coherence every once in a while so I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a site. Not the across-from-the-WH one, the sign-totin’, G’town and elsewhere one. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/17 "2009-02-25T16:37:44Z")
What I want to know is: how do these crazy, seemingly homeless bums get their hands on impeccable sandwich boards and a paintbrush? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/18 "2009-02-25T17:53:03Z")
There have been activists camped out across from the White House for ages, with placards and boards arguing that nuclear weapons are going to destroy civilization. They don’t walk around with them, though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/19 "2009-02-25T22:22:10Z")
Was there a general tendency for the wording to be “…Nigh” in the U.K., and “…Near” in the U.S.? Not that there haven’t been plenty of instances of “nigh” here, but still… ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264/20 "2009-03-12T18:19:55Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > An Gadaí, I once saw a guy with a sandwich board saying “The end of the world is nigh” standing outside Shankill DART station, in the early 1990s. I’ve never seen one in Ireland. Nutcases seem to be more into pictures of aborted foetuses. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-sandwich-boards/487264.md?page=2)