Public Blue Screens of Death Remind Us That Life Is a Farce

Anyone who's owned a Windows system is likely to be familiar with the "blue screen of death," an error screen that shows after a Windows system crashes. It's a bad sign for your computer, hence the ominous moniker. But it's even more jarring when blue screens pop up in public.

Whether you see it as tech slapstick or an eerie glitch in the matrix, one new subreddit now exists as a place for users around the world to post public blue screens of death (PBSoDs). Here are some of my favorites. (Disclaimer: as with all photos on the internet, some of these may be photoshopped.)

Definitely the wrong place and the wrong time. Uploaded by juuular

The mall is closed until further notice. Uploaded by kmlkmljkl

This is what happens when we forsake reliable button technology. Uploaded by kmlkmljkl

This being Taco Bell, Windows is sort of doing you a favor here. Uploaded by kmlkmljkl

A pillar of abject failure. Uploaded by kmlkmljkl

And last but not least, here's Bill Gates presenting Windows 98 and being confronted with the horror he created.