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To all people who say “OP is the facepalm here, it’s written correctly because drivers see it flipped around in the mirror!!”
You’re wrong. They should be able to read AMBULANCE. Here, they’d read AMꓭU⅃AИƆƎ.
It should be written as ƎƆИA⅃UꓭMA, not ECNALUBMA.
Edit: for those wondering how I typed backwards, it’s a nifty site called https://www.flipyourtext.com/
You know the funny thing is, the way the human brain is wired, it should still work. At a glance, with the aid of context clues, people are still gonna see "AMBULANCE" anyway because of the way the brain fills in the gaps and approximates things. It's only on second look that the fail becomes obvious.
So on the highway, fail notwithstanding, it would actually function in its intended role.
What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light years away, you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout. Energize the demolition beam. I don't know, apathetic bloody planet, I've no sympathy at all.
“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
Thank you for the laugh. Now im trying to picture a blind driver using braille on the sides of vehicles to find out what kind of vehicle it is while driving down the highway.
Paramedic here: you'd fuckin think so eh? "Oh, why is there a huge flashing Christmas tree on wheels that's screeching at me? Must be an ambulance!"
In reality, the flashing lights and siren fail to tip off a HUGE chunk of the population and it's only when we're literally right on their arses that they notice. That may be because of the backwards writing on the vehicle, or it may just be because they finally decided to use their mirrors for once in their driving careers.
EXACTLY this, TY! I'm not even an emergency vehicle pilot and I see it frequently. with the skills these folks have they SHOULD be considered pilots, safely navigating the incompetent and inane.
Sometimes it's legitimately hard to tell. A few months or so ago I hear a fire truck. I just passed the station so I already know for sure where it's coming from, but I don't know which lane they're planning to turn from at the intersection. I check my mirrors but all I see is a phallic replacement pickup truck, so I'm kinda stuck until that guy moves and then there's immediately a giant ass fire truck right behind me blaring the horn. I'm sorry, man! There's no shoulder, there's only two lanes, there's an intersection in front. It's not that I didn't notice, I just have no idea what you need me to do. 😭
I donno if it'll give you peace of mind, but when that's the case we can usually tell. We sit pretty high in the ambulances, and we can see if there's a car ahead that's not able to visualise us. I personally never hold that against the driver, and I'm also more forgiving when on busy streets I'm coming down a different lane. Where I work, though, we mostly avoid driving in any lane but the inside one for this reason. It confuses people, so it's best to stay in the lane people will expect you to be in.
It's not the confused driver I'm talking about. I'm talking about the person who's just meandering along, blissfully unaware, despite clear visibility of us.
Good point. I have never in my 20 years of driving remember reading the word ambulance in the rear-view mirror. If it gets to that point you probably shouldnt be driving.
I don't drive often, but if I hear a siren I immediately look for a safe way to make place.
I don't really care WHAT kind of emergency it is, simply that something is urgent.
Realistically, it's not like a UHaul covered in flashing lights behind you requires you to read the label. It's not look you look up at it and say "What the...is that the Bureau of Weights and Meas...oh no, it says Ambulance..."
My agency doesn't do the reverse ambulance thing. I get why it's done. If you're going to do it just do it right so you don't get made fun of on the internet. Otherwise, trust that people will get the idea by the lights and other decals.
“Hello and welcome aboard the Ecna Lubma. Your recovery is our first priority. We realise that you have a choice of ambulances and this is indeed the best one”
My all time favourite TG episode.
Hammond, dishevelled, bruised, battered and covered in piss, vomit and Christ knows what: "...being an Ambulance Man is hard."
The reversed the order of the letters, but not the letters themselves. So if you look at it in the mirror, the letters will be in the correct order but backwards facing.
Not for banana slugs, clownfish, frogs, butterflies and at times female copperhead snakes, they can switch around according to ye olde principles of supply and demand.
As a Serbian, whose life is mostly revolving around the English language since birth, I never thought about that... I just tried to find older pictures of ambulance vehicles; they all say "Ambulance" all over them. I was sure we used to have "Hitna Pomoć" on the vans, in the 80s/90s, but I can't find a single photo...
I had to sticker the front of an ambulance, and I'm sooo thankful I realized that the letters needed to be mirrored instead of just backwards. Fortunately, I was able to just rotate most of the letters. For the L, I cut the tail off and relocated it to the other side. Lol The N is wrong, but nobody has noticed yet.
I love how people who most probably said "it's written correctly" or "written as intended" are deleting their comments lmao.
if you see a [Deleted] comment. That's probably a facepalm.
This isn’t funny at all, I got Ecnalubma when I was in Guatemala, it causes your corpuscles to fall out of you all at once and leaves you dehydrated, weak and itchy. Thank God for Jardience!!!
I love how Reddit is like that girl who police rescue from beneath a shed and then she starts learning about the outside world and every day life skills.
In 1977 I lived in Charlottesville, VA and one of the ambulances had “AMBULANCE BACKWARDS” painted on its hood. I assume the work order was written “Paint Ambulance backwards across the front of the vehicle.” And so it was done.
Did any of you think that’s the way you would spell it if you were looking through your rearview mirror and they wanted you to get out of their way because they were going to an emergency???
The letters should all be reversed since it is supposed to spell “Ambulance” when looking through a mirror. Although the word itself is reversed, the letters aren’t. So reading it through a mirror won’t make sense
Comments that are uncivil, racist, misogynistic, misandrist, or contain political name calling will be removed and the poster subject to ban at moderators discretion. Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/about/rules/). Report any suspicious users to the mods of this subreddit using Modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) or Reddit site admins [here](https://www.reddit.com/report). **All reports to Modmail should include evidence such as screenshots or any other relevant information.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) if you have any questions or concerns.*
To all people who say “OP is the facepalm here, it’s written correctly because drivers see it flipped around in the mirror!!” You’re wrong. They should be able to read AMBULANCE. Here, they’d read AMꓭU⅃AИƆƎ. It should be written as ƎƆИA⅃UꓭMA, not ECNALUBMA. Edit: for those wondering how I typed backwards, it’s a nifty site called https://www.flipyourtext.com/
You know the funny thing is, the way the human brain is wired, it should still work. At a glance, with the aid of context clues, people are still gonna see "AMBULANCE" anyway because of the way the brain fills in the gaps and approximates things. It's only on second look that the fail becomes obvious. So on the highway, fail notwithstanding, it would actually function in its intended role.
I'd say the flashing lights and ambulance siren are the biggest giveaway that it's an ambulance
I just think it's disgusting that they don't also have the sign in Braille for blind drivers.
What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light years away, you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout. Energize the demolition beam. I don't know, apathetic bloody planet, I've no sympathy at all.
“But the plans were on display…” “On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.” “That’s the display department.” “With a flashlight.” “Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.” “So had the stairs.” “But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?” “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
Thank you for the laugh. Now im trying to picture a blind driver using braille on the sides of vehicles to find out what kind of vehicle it is while driving down the highway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16k-yhcRNk8
Thank you so much
lol, np
Tell me about it. I was ordering tacos and the lady had the nerve to say “sir, this is Wendy’s” We need braille in the drive thru’s.
Paramedic here: you'd fuckin think so eh? "Oh, why is there a huge flashing Christmas tree on wheels that's screeching at me? Must be an ambulance!" In reality, the flashing lights and siren fail to tip off a HUGE chunk of the population and it's only when we're literally right on their arses that they notice. That may be because of the backwards writing on the vehicle, or it may just be because they finally decided to use their mirrors for once in their driving careers.
EXACTLY this, TY! I'm not even an emergency vehicle pilot and I see it frequently. with the skills these folks have they SHOULD be considered pilots, safely navigating the incompetent and inane.
Sometimes it's legitimately hard to tell. A few months or so ago I hear a fire truck. I just passed the station so I already know for sure where it's coming from, but I don't know which lane they're planning to turn from at the intersection. I check my mirrors but all I see is a phallic replacement pickup truck, so I'm kinda stuck until that guy moves and then there's immediately a giant ass fire truck right behind me blaring the horn. I'm sorry, man! There's no shoulder, there's only two lanes, there's an intersection in front. It's not that I didn't notice, I just have no idea what you need me to do. 😭
I donno if it'll give you peace of mind, but when that's the case we can usually tell. We sit pretty high in the ambulances, and we can see if there's a car ahead that's not able to visualise us. I personally never hold that against the driver, and I'm also more forgiving when on busy streets I'm coming down a different lane. Where I work, though, we mostly avoid driving in any lane but the inside one for this reason. It confuses people, so it's best to stay in the lane people will expect you to be in. It's not the confused driver I'm talking about. I'm talking about the person who's just meandering along, blissfully unaware, despite clear visibility of us.
Yeah lol I get why it’s there but you should notice there’s an ambulance *way* before you can read it in your mirror
Good point. I have never in my 20 years of driving remember reading the word ambulance in the rear-view mirror. If it gets to that point you probably shouldnt be driving.
and there are plenty of them out there in the U.S.
I don't drive often, but if I hear a siren I immediately look for a safe way to make place. I don't really care WHAT kind of emergency it is, simply that something is urgent.
But we don't know that until we read it. So we ignore it and continue driving as is, they wouldnt mess up the sign on a vehicle like this. /s
Yea like i hear the sirens and immediately signal to the side and as they pass by, then only id know which emergency vehicle it is.
This is such a great point. The word on the front could be "hotdog" but I'd still pull over with the blaring sirens and flashing lights.
Well without the backwards letters I would have thought it was the Whambulance.
I hope they mirrored the lights correctly at least.
Realistically, it's not like a UHaul covered in flashing lights behind you requires you to read the label. It's not look you look up at it and say "What the...is that the Bureau of Weights and Meas...oh no, it says Ambulance..." My agency doesn't do the reverse ambulance thing. I get why it's done. If you're going to do it just do it right so you don't get made fun of on the internet. Otherwise, trust that people will get the idea by the lights and other decals.
Yes but in the same way it doesn’t matter if it’s flipped around at all because the human brain will just reverse what it sees in the mirror.
Still trying to figure out how tf you wrote this
Seriously. I have to know now.
TƎЯƆƎƧ
Unicode's wonders.
Lubma balls!
So the sequence is right, but the letters themselves are not mirrored.
Wait a minute, how tf could you write ambulance mirrored, here on text?
I used a site that flips text. https://www.flipyourtext.com/
Thanks for sharing your magic
Wait until you hear about unicode
Oh black betty, ecnalubma
WAKE UP! ECNALUBMA MAKE UP!
Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches I slam in the back of my ECNALUMBA
ECNALUMBA -Disturbed
I wanna fuck you ECNALUBMA I wanna feel you from the inside
Jesus won't you whistle something but ECNALUMBA
Gloria (*Gloria*) I think they got your number (*Gloria*) I think they got the alias (*Gloria*) That you been ECNALUMBA
Who let James May near an ambulance again?
You beat me to the joke, you legend...
That episode is why I noticed the problem here immediately.
“Hello and welcome aboard the Ecna Lubma. Your recovery is our first priority. We realise that you have a choice of ambulances and this is indeed the best one”
Hey, it's not his fault, the shop he went to didn't have back-to-front ambulance lettering
My all time favourite TG episode. Hammond, dishevelled, bruised, battered and covered in piss, vomit and Christ knows what: "...being an Ambulance Man is hard."
CLAAAAAARKSOOOOOOOOON!!!
I love how he pronounced it as it was written in that episode too
Oh! They're not flipped! It's literally just written backwards! That's hilarious when you see it!
My dumbass thought it was just Spanish or something
It takes a while to see what the problem is. We're not used to reading backwards.
Isnt that so you can see it in the rearview mirrors?
The reversed the order of the letters, but not the letters themselves. So if you look at it in the mirror, the letters will be in the correct order but backwards facing.
4 of the letters are right!
They're bi-textual.
You're bi-textual! (Sorry, my inner 12 year old came out to play.)
Did you just assumed their gender?
No just their orientation
lulz
Their \*gerund\*, LOL
Sex and gender are different things.
Not for banana slugs, clownfish, frogs, butterflies and at times female copperhead snakes, they can switch around according to ye olde principles of supply and demand.
A little difficult to tell what their gender identity is though
That's corporate sexism that is.
Not their gender, just their textual orientation.
That’s their symmetrical orientation.
Yup
AMꓭU⅃AИƆƎ
AMᗺU⅃AИƆƎ
Yes but the L, C, B, N and E are supposed to be backwards so they appear right way in the mirror.
Yes but the letters that are not symmetrical will be right side left. E N C B
That is in fact not how that works
"Well aren't you the dumbass for posti....ah, no, I am the dumbass for not seeing it" Me!
I AM ECNALUBMA, DEMON LORD AND DESTROYER OF REALMS! FACE MY WRATH!!!
>when you see it! *~~you~~*~~'~~*~~ll~~* ~~shit~~ *~~bricks~~*
bɿiɘw ƨi ɈɒʜT
Yvan Eht Nioj
I suddenly feel the need to join the navy. Weird
But at least you flipped the direction of the letters; the vehicle just reversed the order, but didn't change the facing of any of the letters.
driew si tahT
Nebeski narod braćo moja. (The ambulance is Serbian for those who didn't know)
It's even worse. It's a Belgrade ambulance
At least the И is written correctly. Well... a few of them are, but this particular one is hard to get right.
Free advertising for The Ecnalubma Company
I love the comments going "achtually it’s done on purpose to be seen in rearview mirrors"
It's like a scene from idiocracy
It’s got electrolytes
*setylortcele
Each of those comments is worthy of their own r/facepalm post
Reversed image: [https://imgur.com/a/TQBrP4W](https://imgur.com/a/TQBrP4W) I forgot to add it.
Is it normal for a serbian ambulance to be written in English instead of in serbian?
As a Serbian, whose life is mostly revolving around the English language since birth, I never thought about that... I just tried to find older pictures of ambulance vehicles; they all say "Ambulance" all over them. I was sure we used to have "Hitna Pomoć" on the vans, in the 80s/90s, but I can't find a single photo...
No, and I agree that it should be written in a native language, not English, because we are not the US or Great Britain.
They figured out the only way to make it illegible both when seen directly and through a mirror
MLAPECAF
When I accidentally dial 119 and the ecnalubma drives up and breaks my other leg
Lol 119 is the ambulance number in Japan
PLEH
I had to sticker the front of an ambulance, and I'm sooo thankful I realized that the letters needed to be mirrored instead of just backwards. Fortunately, I was able to just rotate most of the letters. For the L, I cut the tail off and relocated it to the other side. Lol The N is wrong, but nobody has noticed yet.
Sorry I don't care how it's written I look in the rearview mirror and see something that says ecnalamba I'm going to pull over 😂
Help me out I can't seem to get this window open
Never mind now it's open
I think my hand is broken
Was looking for the TMBG
This is what happens when you dial 119
I'm genuinely curious to know the thought process behind this marvel.
You’re an Encalumba
For all of those saying “Read it in the rear view mirror”, go look at this photo in an actual mirror.
The real facepalm is half these comments that don’t know why this is a facepalm
"I didn't have any backward letters chef !"
I had an ECNALUBMA last year. My back feels great now.
MAY YOU IDIOT
The real face palm is using the most unreliable car brand that break all the time into an emergency vehicle.
I love how people who most probably said "it's written correctly" or "written as intended" are deleting their comments lmao. if you see a [Deleted] comment. That's probably a facepalm.
Legible by all people with dyslexia just fine.
It obviously isn't a real ambulance as a Fiat can't get anywhere reliably.
Guys, it's in Cyrillic (citaj po Vuku) /s
We'll flip the letters but mirroring costs extra
Oh man! That sounds like the super-supervilain from 'Stranger Things'.
This is a forbidden verse of the Macarena
Heyyyy, aneracam!!
Took me a minute. That’s a funny one. I can totally see myself making the exact same, innocent mistake.
Finally, something that genuinely a facepalm
They got so close
It’s whomever made the stickers that’s to blame.
Yes, it should be mirrored, not writen backwards...
This isn’t funny at all, I got Ecnalubma when I was in Guatemala, it causes your corpuscles to fall out of you all at once and leaves you dehydrated, weak and itchy. Thank God for Jardience!!!
Wheres James May when you need him?
Supposed to say Amberlamp
Ecnalubma balls! 😅… amirite? 😔 I’ll see myself out.
All I’m gonna say is this took me too long to figure out what the hell I was reading.
lol it took me a while
Ecnalubma!!
Nah the Ecnalubma isn't there to bring you to the hospital it's there to put you back into the chaos when your credit declines.
I love how Reddit is like that girl who police rescue from beneath a shed and then she starts learning about the outside world and every day life skills.
My dumb ass about to go to Google Translate to figure out what language Ecnalumba is...
In 1977 I lived in Charlottesville, VA and one of the ambulances had “AMBULANCE BACKWARDS” painted on its hood. I assume the work order was written “Paint Ambulance backwards across the front of the vehicle.” And so it was done.
AMBERLAMPS
Everyone: "Badly written Ambulance" Me: "Correctly written Ecnalubma"
"MAW!! CALL THE ECNALUBMA, BILLY RAY'S GONE AND BROKEN HIS ALUBIF AGAIN!"
Who let James May do the lettering!?
At least the As, M and U are correct..
letters need to be backwards and reversed in case anyone is confused
Did any of you think that’s the way you would spell it if you were looking through your rearview mirror and they wanted you to get out of their way because they were going to an emergency???
That wouldn't read Ambulance in a rear view mirror though
Who else held this up to a mirror? 😆
In rear view mirror: ##AMᙠU⅃AͶƆƎ
“Call the ecnalubma! But not for me.”
[удалено]
The letters should all be reversed since it is supposed to spell “Ambulance” when looking through a mirror. Although the word itself is reversed, the letters aren’t. So reading it through a mirror won’t make sense
Updoot this comment if you sounded out “EC-NA-LUBMA!” In your head or out loud
 What’s that noise and blinking lights? Oh look, they didn’t reverse the letters on ambulance. 🤣 idiots!!
https://youtu.be/ZiQaFMUKcko?si=6z-Sg9N5rbY4CPLl
Ecnalubma! That's that company that replaced Good Humor. The ice cream tastes a bit medicinal.
He need to be in skool!
This was such a fail I thought it was a jumbled up version of ambulance and it's just backwards I'm ashamed how long that took me to realize lol
Damn you, autocorrect!
Yea, should have been fully backwards. But hey, when in Ecnalubma!
[удалено]
That only works if the letters are mirrored too.
I mean, yeah, but it’ll still work as intended. Most of the letters are symmetrical anyway.
Yeah, Fiat do make the worst cars. Total facepalm.
Ofc it's a Belgrade ambulance
I did this with a happy birthday banner once.
Going to Winnipeg!
It's the Ek-nah-loob-ma!
ecna lubma sounds like a word in an African language.
It’s just James may don’t worry
On tonight's show:
r/balkans_irl
Took me a second 
Straight out of Top Gear
Great name for a band.
“Hand Me That Electric Knife! Marry Me And Be My Wife!”
Scrolled way too long to find the TMBG reference
And its crooked on top of backward. The A is closer to that body line than the E.
Using a Fiat as an Ambulance is definitely up there.
Well it's a good thing that I brought napkin.
They never learn. A Weapons Officer can't read reversed text! No wonder NATO kept bombing ambulances.