Meaning
What does Don’t Dead Open Inside mean?
Don’t dead open inside is a reoccurring online trope, that revolves around the inaccurate interpretation of a text that is written out in multiple lines, playing with the order of the words.
“Don’t dead open inside” refers to the poster of the TV series, The Walking Dead, which became the textbook example of the trope.
Origin
What's the origin of Don’t Dead Open Inside?
The Comic-Con poster for The Walking Dead was unveiled on July 2nd, 2010.
The poster depicted a double door, labeled “Don’t Open” on the left side and “Dead Inside” on the right, meant to be read as “Don’t open dead inside”.
However, if read line by line, the message reads “Don’t dead open inside”.
The door was shown in both the trailer of the series as well as the first episode.
Spread & Usage
How did Don’t Dead Open Inside spread?
In 2010, Twitter was swarmed by tweets discussing the flaw of the poster design.
In the early 2010’s, the trope was especially popular of the r/CrappyDesign subreddit, until May 17th, 2014, when the subreddit, r/dontdeadopeninside was created.
Several examples of the trope were amassed in the subreddit, from advertising, popular culture and design.
From 2019, the trope often appeared on the Floating Boy Chasing Running Boy meme.
External resources
- Know Your Meme – Don’t Dead Open Inside