clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Your Notre Dame GameDay Signs Are Terrible and Not Funny

Why are people soooooooooo bad at this?

By Eric Murtaugh

Tomorrow, the Fighting Irish will be playing in the 300th edition of ESPN College GameDay. That means a lot of publicity around GameDay fan signs. Which also means that opposing fans, in this case Temple, will show the world how amateur and unoriginal their digs at Notre Dame will be.

When it comes to Notre Dame's opponents, the accepted level of humor drops to one roughly between late 3rd grade and early 4th grade. Remember when you were 10.5 years old and you heard a joke for the first time, and looking back it wasn't that funny but you thought it was then? This is the sweet spot for Notre Dame-related GameDay signs, except no one grows out of the phase and everyone thinks the jokes are still hilarious year after year after year.

Ya'll suck at this.

In order to show you what I'm talking about let's take a look back at the Clemson GameDay from earlier this year. You'll see straight copies or variations of these signs again on Saturday.

That's good.

A photo posted by College GameDay (@collegegameday) on

Yes, during a home opener one time when aliens invaded, it was 783 degrees outside, our football coach got real mad at a bunch of turnovers, and his pale Irish skin turned really red, even purple at times.

The worst part is this wasn't this person's original idea. They Googled someone else's work and printed it out on a board. Plus, I'm pretty sure this exact sign has been at previous Notre Dame GameDay events.

So to recap, you went with the lowest common denominator (yelling coach) in sports dissing, then stole someone's else's work, and became the 4th person to bring it to GameDay. Congratulations. Look to the bottom left of the corner of this picture, too. Screaming Kelly, who would have thought!

That's a low blow man.

A photo posted by College GameDay (@collegegameday) on

You know that walk-on football player from the late 70's whose story was made into a famous movie? You know how he ended that one football game with a sack? Actually, he was lined up in the neutral zone but the official on the field that day missed the call and did not throw his flag. Yes, Rudy was offsides.

/drops mic

What. A. Burn. An instant classic if there ever was one. It's funny on so many levels!

I can't tell you how often I fear someone saying 'Rudy was offsides' to me. Ahh, the pain and anguish it'll cause! How dare they take that sack away from him. What a brutish unfair world we live in these days. If Rudy was offsides then I don't want to live.

Here's one that's a variation of a joke that's almost 25 years old, so you know it's an oldie but a goodie. Bonus points if you work in Lucky Charms--no one has ever done that before.

This is one of those jokes (and I used the term 'jokes' here as loosely as possible) that isn't so much about present reality (oh, hello undefeated LSU when was your last loss?) as it does appeal to kids who were 10 years old when it first came en vogue. Those kids are now in their 20's and 30's and make up the vast majority of the people who think it's a real knee slapper and/or frequent the GameDay sign section.

Plus, even if this were funny YOU SHOULD USE IT WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO PLAY NOTRE DAME IN A BOWL GAME. Not doing so is just another example of how little effort ya'll put into making fun of Notre Dame. It's like if someone came to GameDay with a "ND players choke in day games cause they're all pale and get sun burn" sign for the 8 PM nighttime game.

I'd estimate 27% of all Notre Dame GameDay signs throughout history deal with the Pope in some fashion. And they are all really, really clever.

It's even better when you see a guy dressed up as the Pope but in his football teams' colors. A human being saw Notre Dame on the schedule, thought to himself "I gotta dress up as the Pope!" and spent hundreds of dollars to get the wardrobe done in custom colors. Then, unbeknownst to us Irish fans we see this guy rolling up to the stadium and we're like, "Oh damn, you mean to tell me? Wait, no. This can't be. The Pope is actually a fan of YOUR school?"

If you don't have that refined comedic sense you can always settle for something simpler. Just make a sign telling us that, in fact, the Pope favors your team and not Notre Dame. That cuts so deep.

notre lame

This is good, but somewhat complicated so let me walk you through it. You see, what is done here is to take the 'Dame' from 'Notre Dame' and remove the 'D' from the school's name. The end result is this belly roar of a GameDay sign that in no way signifies the holder of the sign as lame but instead the joke is on us! LOL, you got us good!

Notre Lame. Just stare at it and let the chuckles take over.

Many years from now when future generations look back on our time they won't so much bemoan the decline in math or science, the obesity, or massive college debt that ballooned during this era. They'll scratch their heads for a long time trying to figure out how Notre Lame was ever cool and funny to anyone past Little League age.

Plus, dude...did you begin with orange marker and have it run out?

Okay, this one is still kind of funny. Despite most opposing fans not really understanding (and not caring to, more appropriately) the Te'o catfish episode we'll allow it. Even though this meme went out of fashion roughly 30 months ago we should be thankful there are some attempts at Notre Dame jokes fewer than 5 years old.

More From One Foot Down