Bizarre Laws (Part I)
evawhite on March 25th, 2008
I came across this old book at home about strange, ancient laws. Some of them were so strange as to be hilarious so I decided to take look at strange existing or strange laws at present in force. There was much hilarity to be found when I decided to search for strange, weird and bizarre laws; I thought I’d share some with you. Some of them may simply be on the books and not be enforced, some laws people have simply forgotten to repeal.
In an article of the BBC the British public was polled on some really silly British laws, and those polled were asked to rate which was the most ridiculous. Apparently there is a law prohibits dying in the houses of parliament, which most number of people rated as the absurdist. How do you avoid that I wonder and if you do die in the Houses of Parliament, how I wonder would you be punished?
Then the next one on the list is that It could be regarded an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen’s image upside-down. I would frequently be guilty of that one.
One really stupid law says eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned (and here I thought we all were supposed to eat mince pies on Christmas as part of the celebrations!).
And this is one is really great: In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants. I wonder how she would do it though, squat on the street perhaps!
The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen. Hmmm…. they were making sure that a dead whale would not lead to squabbling among their ruling monarchs, lest it lead to disharmony and ultimately divorce!
It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing. All I can say is Ha ha ha, but I don’t kind of understand the logic!
It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armor. There can’t be much danger of that happening surely!
Here are super Australian ones:
It is illegal to roam the streets wearing black clothes, felt shoes and black shoe polish on your face as these items are the tools of a cat burglar. Fashion victims beware!
It is illegal to read someone’s tarot, or give them a psychic reading, as these are forms of witchcraft, presumably putting a lot of people out of business!
Taxi cabs are required to carry a bale of hay in the trunk. Also bars are required to stable, water and feed the horses of their patrons. Obviously someone forgot to repeal these laws when horse drawn carriages were replaced by motorized vehicles.
You must have a neck to knee swimsuit in order to swim at Brighton Beach. Hmm I suppose they would really frown upon going topless then? It is illegal to wear hot pink pants after midday Sunday. This one completely flummoxed me. What can I say, except ‘BIZARRE?’
As for dumb American laws, there are so many I have to devote a whole post to that one, so stay tuned for more legal madness!
