Invisible homeless man

World's greatest homeless sign ever (Thanks, Joe Sabia!)

I'm a contributing editor here at Boing Boing. I also have a blog (TokyoMango), a book (Urawaza), and I freelance for Wired, Make, the NY Times Magazine, PRI's Studio360, etc. I'm @tokyomango on Twitter.

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Anonymous

So invisible or not this guy is hanging out naked?
Cristian Raicu

Hey, how about the copyright of this idea?
May as use that in city in Europe, for example in Spain ?
kridje

This is so fake! It’s probably photoshopped or something.
Anonymous

If anyone’s interested, this was made last September by Boston-area art student Sean Haire, and it was placed by the Reservoir T-stop near Cleveland Circle.
Geoff

Is this the result of city councilors everywhere wishing the homeless problem would ‘just disappear’?
Felton

Geoff, you kind of beat me too it, but here goes:

So much for making the homeless problem more visible.
Phikus

I’d give him invisible money (enough to retire on, while I’m at it.) When you think about it, $ does have the tendency to disappear…
Anonymous

http://invisiblepeople.tv/
kimnbri

“Where magical invisibility is concerned, the issue may arise of whether the clothing and items carried by the invisible wearer/carrier are also rendered invisible. In general, they are, but in some instances, clothing remains visible and must be removed for the full invisibility effect.”

Per Wiki so it must be so…
Felton

Correction for my last comment: “beat me to it.” Waiter! More coffee!
- Geoff
  
  For what it’s worth, I like yours better. The essence of wit is brevity.
Anonymous

I suggest a homeopathic donation.
It has the memory of money
straponego

That poor bastard.
Anonymous

how can i give help to this man?
autark

the invisible hand hard at work
Anonymous

When I was homeless and panhandling for a living, I found there are only two techniques that really work well. One option is looking really haggard and harassing people until they pay you to leave them alone. The other is to employ a novelty such as this.

You can make anywhere from fifty cents a day up to a hundred bucks an hour panhandling. Sitting there with a short honest sign explaining your predicament will get you nothing — maybe a dime every couple hours. Putting out a sign asking for beer money, or “ninjas killed my family spare change for jujitsu lessons” or putting a cup on the end of a string and tying it to a stick with a sign saying “fishing for change”, might make you a good fifty bucks over the course of an hour or two.

If you’re genuinely looking to buy a cheap dress shirt, admission to a pool so you can use their shower, two bucks to print some resumes at kinkos, and four bucks to rent a locker at the greyhound station to store your stuff while you apply for jobs, you’re pretty much fucked. You really do need to stop shaving, stop bathing, lose some teeth, then walk up to people, put your face three inches from theirs and follow them, continuing to say “spare change” till they give you money. Otherwise, you need to get creative like this invisible fellow did.

Apropos captcha: “freedom letter”
- Jerril
  
  It’s interesting, as the two approaches roughly break down into “Provide a service that the community you’re working in values (a moment of light entertainment on the street with your creative pitch)” and “Evoke as many negative emotions as possible until you can bully them into making it stop”.
EeyoreX

Last night I saw upon the stair
A homeless man who wasnâ€™t there
He wasnâ€™t there again today
Oh, how I wish heâ€™d go away
- Anonymous
  
  Favorite poem ever. Of all times.
Ugly Canuck

I always knew that no-good sex maniac Vinny Shinblind would wind up on the streets one day, begging his meals!

PS RIP Peter Bramley, Vinny’s father.
I’m glad he did not live to see what has become of little Vinny….

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/arts/design/05bramley.html
Ugly Canuck

“Frank Jenkinson”?! My ass!
That’s Vinny, and he’s a wanted man, a sex maniac, I tells ya!
lauriok

Here in Finland, the government is preparing a law that would make panhandling, even silent, illegal. In the end they’d like to make all the homeless, unemployed, and poor people invisible, so as not to interfere with their shiny, clinically clean capitalist welfare fantasy.
- Anonymous
  
  Sad as that sounds, prison in Finland sounds like a pretty easy thing, and you can basically walk out of it anytime too. http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Finnish+triple+murderer+escapes+from+minimum+security+prison/1135223321421
  
  So really all this law would do is give homeless people a chance for free room and board if they want it.
Anonymous

i see that human kindness knows no bounds. that’s human nature for ya. MINE! MINE! MINE!
Kleinzeit

I foresee a franchise.
jaytkay

My impression is its mocking the homeless. Not funny, thought-provoking or interesting.
Anonymous

I’m really touched by the plight of the poor homeless with invisiblemanitis. I always make an invisible donation of several hundred invisible dollars when I don’t see them reduced to begging on the street.

Why they don’t just slip into the best restaurants and help themselves is testimony to the widespread decency found amongst them … a quality often invisible in the wider community.
tixeon75

I can’t see giving him anything.
- Anonymous
  
  I think he is hiding from Googles Street View cars
Anonymous

This is more symbolic than you might think at first. Discouraged workers (those who have given up looking for a job or who have been unemployer for over four weeks) are not counted as part of the labor force…
growrosesnow@gmail.com

Well, at least it’s original.
SkullHyphy

He’d make a great window washer.
Brainspore

Put some pants on, ya perv.
meatpigeon

I wouldn’t give him anything. He should pull himself up by his invisible bootstraps. Work as an undercover cop, super hero, CIA spy, stagehand, ventriloquist. The possibilities for employment are endless!

Actually, maybe I’d invite him to live with me and just pretend he is a ghost for the lulz
kip w

Charles Addams, wasn’t it? “BE THANKFUL YOU CAN BE SEEN.”
Anonymous

Seen it. Circa 1983, Greenwich Village.
Stefan Jones

Invisible or not, giving handouts to the homeless just encourages them to continue to indulge their addictions.

Give your money to worthy charities, such as the Revisibilization Society or the Seethrough Army.
- Anonymous
  
  “giving handouts to the homeless just encourages them to continue to indulge their addictions”
  
  Because all homeless people are addicts?
Anonymous

Don’t smash the unemployed and homeless as you may one day have to walk with no shoes.

Where were all you naysayers when the government handed the rich billions of dollars to pass around there company. If you asked me…Wall Street has panhandling down to a science.
Anonymous

I have those sandals… in my apartment, where I live.
crazy shawn

I think he is making a statement of how our society view homeless people.

At first we see them everywhere then slowly over time we notice them less and less (they are still there) we just become so bitter and so unsympathetic that we stop noticing them and they eventually become invisible to us.

And for the poster that thinks it adds to there addiction I feel sorry for you by most standards 50% of every person is just a few paychecks from being homeless.

Loose your job and see how fast your world crumbles especially in this economy.
Anonymous

Gloves and a ski cap in July? I don’t believe it.
Stefan Jones

@#8: The intent of that post was satirical.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  People are remarkably lax about replacing the batteries on their ironimeters.
celeb8

Good lord, too lazy to even man your panhandling post? Now I’ve seen everything.
GauchoAmigo

There’s no way that guy is actually invisible. It’s some kind of con so that he can panhandle in 2 places at once.
edgore

Ah yes! The invisible (pan)hand(ler) of the Market!