It's Not Always a Great Day for the Playground / Giant Sun Burning Over Playground

Submission 429

Part of a series on Exploitables. [View Related Entries]

About

It's Not Always a Great Day for the Playground or Giant Sun Burning Over Playground is an exploitable meme series based on a public service announcement by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission warning parents to check that playground equipment isn't too hot before letting their children use the playground. The advertisement, which was posted on X / Twitter in June 2024, depicts a giant sun looming over a playground. It became the subject of photoshops and memes that month, often replacing the sun with another object or adding an additional element to change the context of the PSA.

Origin

The @USCPSC X page regularly posts public service announcements that lean into meme and comedy territory. On June 4th, 2024, the page posted an announcement to X^[1] warning parents to check for hot playground equipment before letting their children use the playground, garnering over 4,200 likes and 1,100 reposts in two days (shown below). The post features an image of a giant sun looming over a playground and reads, "It's not always a great day for the playground. Always check for hot playground equipment."

Spread

Some found the exaggerated size of the sun on the poster comedic, inspiring photoshops and reactions over the following days. On June 4th, 2024, X^[2] user @LatticeParable quote-reposted the image, writing, "insane visual on its own," garnering over 84,000 likes in two days.

On the same day, X^[3] user @mczub posted a photoshop replacing the sun with Bahamut from Final Fantasy, garnering over 3,000 likes in the same span of time (shown below).

Also on June 4th, X^[4] user @ posted a video placing the boss character Utsuho Reiuji and her theme song from the video game Subterranean Animism under the sun, garnering over 3,500 likes in two days (shown below).

On June 5th, 2024, the original post was reposted to /r/comedyheaven,^[5] garnering over 3,900 upvotes in a day. Later that day, it was posted to iFunny,^[6] garnering over 3,200 smiles in the same span of time.