Talk:Opposite Day/Archive 1

Untitled

This article is not about Opposite Day, it is about an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants entitled "Opposite Day". Ergo, it should be at "Opposite Day (SpongeBob SquarePants Episode)", which is currently a redirect. The article currently called "Opposite day" should be here, because "Opposite Day" is the correct capitalization (and is, in fact, the capitalization used inside that article). This should be patently obvious to all but the most deeply foolish persons. Would that I had the ability to fix this silliness myself. 69.140.12.199 03:52, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Done and done. Boldly, no? 68.252.252.233 19:49, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

The last paragraph seemed like nonsensical vandalism to me, so I deleted it. 24.245.11.34 05:14, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

I deleted the phrase "although the real date is March 26" because it was not referenced, but there were three references to it being on January 25. edgr11:17, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

It seems this article focuses on the philosophical aspect (children's literature) of Opposite Day when there should be more information included about the day itself. A sentence our two should be added showing that while opposite day has no official national or international date, it is usually declared on a whim - mainly by children - to act as a taunt or jest to somebody who would otherwise disagree with them. Also, while this page was originally merged with the Liars Paradox, all references since seemed to have disappeared. I think a short sentence saying this is also an example of Liar's Paradox with an explanation would help this article out.CaptainPatent (talk) 19:42, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Calvin and Hobbes?

Why is it in the template for Calvin and Hobbes? It shows up in one strip! I'm deleting it unless someone says otherwise.I didn't do it. 23:40, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

US-centric?

Anyone help on the US centric tag? What's the problem exactly? Hobit (talk) 21:21, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

• I went ahead and removed the US centric tag. I can't see anything particularly non-global, and the tagging was User:Emptycanvas's only Wikipedia edit, so there isn't anything to give us an idea what was intended by it. Serpent's Choice (talk) 21:32, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

a few notes

This article seems to suffer a lot from immature edits. Such as that thing with Tim Osborne. Honestly, why has that remained there for so long?

At the risk of being accused of adding original research the article no longer refers to Opposite Day as a holiday.

There does indeed need to be information about the origin of Opposite Day, and not just random dates or whatever.

• Harris, Joseph and Carol Turkington (2000). Get Ready! for Standardized Tests: Grade 1. McGraw-Hill. p. 23. ISBN 9780071360128.
• www.holidayinsights.com

JamesEG (talk)_

With respect to the need for information about the origins of Opposite Day, I added a request for a citation on the claim that Opposite Day was invited by Omar Mohamed. Who is he? I found no info on him anywhere, not on Wiki, not searching Google, nor elsewhere. Is this something random that someone added to the article? If no citation can be made and this claim cannot be substantiated, this claim should probably be removed. I have a suspicion that this claim may itself be an "Opposite Day" joke.

Not a Misnomer

In reference to the citation request for:"It is a misnomer that Opposite day is usually only played by children. It is very often practised by university lecturers and corporate executives.", I realise this may be a bit picky about termanology but it is not a misnomer as a misnomer means that it's name is innacurate. Ho where in the name Opposite day does it dictate that it is only for kids. Citation should be sought however on this, but I too have heard of it being observed by companies from friends and via word of mouth. i believe that it is commonly accepted that soem companies and universities play these pranks officially, but as according to wiki standards, there should be some officialy stated representation of that, like a news paper or magazine or soemthing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.106.156.51 (talk) 06:30, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

You're not being picky at all. That's a complete wrong use of the word. --~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.34.227.5 (talk) 15:42, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

When is Opposite Day 'officially'?

The article states that it is 'historically' on the first Thursday of the month, and 'officially' on the 11th of November. Does anyone actually know? If it was on the 11th of November, it would have made for some difficult peace treaties in 1919 xD TheKnight27 (talk) 10:11, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

There is no such thing as an official opposite day. That's stupid. 64.72.89.130 (talk) 00:15, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Hallmark says it's in January: [1] --Asperous (talk) 02:04, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Opposite Day!

Personaly I like the idea of opposite day, reason of course is because I always fool my brother into acting strange....Anyway opposite day is just a gimmic, or a prank that people use to trick other people into acting totally confused, and dumb. There is no opposite day its just a joke.But even though you can use it as a joke there is no official day like Christmas, Valentine's day, or even secretaries day. Some people don't like the whole opposite day joke, but if your reading this trick someone with it!:-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.91.198.200 (talk) 18:36, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

188.220.213.240 (talk) 15:47, 13 May 2011 (UTC)if it isn't opisite day then you say isn't but if it is you say its now.So how do you tell?

I'm glad to find this article!     (In error I was googling Opposite World.) (The world seems riddled and cluttered with "educational games" and sadly missing children's fun for its own sake...which I'm guessing is even more educational.)
    I wish the game rules were more detailed, perhaps more examples? Thanks!
--68.127.90.0 (talk) 18:02, 8 March 2012 (UTC)Doug Bashford

The "Today is Opposite Day" Paradox

It looks like work needs to be done on the final paragraph about the "Today is Opposite Day" paradox, and it's relation to the liar-paradox.

The Liar Paradox ("This sentence is false") is paradoxical because, as the Liar Paradox wikipedia page notes, attempts to assign the sentence a truth value results in a contradiction.

So far as I can tell (at least from the present description, which also suffers from a general lack of clarity), there is no such paradox involved here. Rather, what the editor appears to be trying to say is that "Today is Opposite Day" is self-defeating. Because if Today is not opposite day, "Today is Opposite Day" is false, and if Today is opposite day, "Today is Opposite Day" really means "Today is not opposite day," and so is also false.

If this is right, the Opposite Day "paradox" is better classified with Fitch, Moorean, or anti-cogito style sentences ("I am being quiet" "I am not thinking," "P but I don't know it"). These are a class of pseudo-paradoxes, often referred to in philosophy as "deliberative gaps," because while they may be true, they cannot be truthfully asserted.

As such, I am going to delete the section for now, though I suppose there might be interest in adding a more accurate description of the paradox, especially given the focus on Opposite Day's application to the Philosophy-for-Children movement. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:326F:AC40:226:BBFF:FE05:EE5B (talk) 08:11, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

You're absolutely right. I see it has been reverted unjustifiably. Someone uneducated must be doing it to troll the article. --~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.34.227.5 (talk) 15:45, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

When you say there's no paradox involved, I think you might be assuming assuming that it's already unambiguously true that today either is or is not Opposite Day. In that paradigm I agree that the statement is false in both cases. However I think a paradox arises if the statement "Today is Opposite Day" is understood not as a purported statement of fact, but as an invocation of Opposite Day. (To put it another way, the statement could be recast as "This statement, and any statement in the next 24 hours, shall mean the opposite of what it says.") In that case it's similar to the Liar Paradox, no? Perhaps this could be clarified in the improved paragraph on the paradox. Sroyon (talk) 11:24, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

What is this article about?

Is this actually about a SpongeBob Squarepants thing? I doubt there is really an actual Opposite Day when you say the opposite of what you mean. This, to the best of my knowledge, is a game children play. If this topic is really worthy of inclusion on Wikipedia, it should be clear that this is a game, not a real festival.--Jcvamp (talk) 09:50, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

date

Various people have referenced the existence of an Opposite Day, most famously the Spongebog episode, but nobody has ever had consensus regarding to date as far as I've seen; 177.102.218.62 (talk) 20:41, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Re: Standarized testing

the game has been used as an educational aid and suggested as preparation for "standardized testing".

This is quite possibly the most absurd and ridiculous sentence on the entire English Wikipedia. Someone is either seriously trolling or is drunk on establishment Kool-Aid. Viriditas (talk) 03:54, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Actually, this seemingly simple concept is applicable in many contexts. It is can be used as an exercise in logical reasoning and semantics, which is applicable to standardized tests such as the LSAT and SAT. 2602:306:805A:41A0:2C2A:BB6C:1DB0:2F86 (talk) 19:10, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

The two funniest sentences on Wikipedia

"Opposite Day is an unofficial holiday, that is generally observed whenever it is declared, where every action is modified so that meaning is negated. It is usually observed among children, and rarely lasts an entire day. " the emphasized part is especially hilarious. Kudos to whoever wrote that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.225.80.125 (talk) 11:34, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Re: Facetiousness

The expression can also be used to express facetiousness by sounding sincere instead of sarcastic. For example, upon seeing an ugly woman “Madam, you are one of the most beautiful people i’ve ever seen… because it’s Opposite Day today, right?.”, or upon a teacher handing back a failing test “Wow Joey, you got one of the best marks in the class… oh wait, it’s not Opposite Day.” Another example being upon failing to get or hold the attention of a woman “Wow, Bill sure is good with the ladies… on Opposite Day…” A game can be made out of this fashion by secretly being facetious for an extended period of time before telling the person that it’s “Opposite Day” attempting to mislead them for a laugh. (This is actually how the game works) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mooseph (talk • contribs) 01:53, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

Should be categorized as a fictional holiday

Most of the sources on this are fictional depictions of a cultural phenomenon. Also see that has a short but valid description. At best, this playground game is an unofficial observance (perhaps an observance of the game?). Besides, there already is a holiday for this sort of thing, April Fools Day. 2602:306:805A:41A0:2C2A:BB6C:1DB0:2F86 (talk) 23:30, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

References