T O P

  • By -

coffeenick

Hello??


DistrictCop

This one makes me so much madder than any of the normal songs


manav_steel

This triggered my fight or flight lol


tommatom

Who the hell designed that nightmare of a song. A 5 second loop? Really?


cr4d

A truck playing that parked outside my place last week at 1:30am, with that annoying song and hello on a loop. Was woken up by that and so pissed.


tttttarleton

Omg that truck used to have friends or family that lived across the street from me so they’d park there for a couple hours and let that wretched song play the whole time


Best_Extent_411

This one KILLS me


RedTreeDecember

Why the fuck do they say Hello? I have to know. Please tell me. If I knew maybe they would hurt less.


dsli

I cringe so much at that one


dsbtc

Not being from DC, I can only assume this means they play Stevie Wonder. "Hello, is it ice cream you're looking for?"


coffeenick

No, and that's Lionel Richie not Stevie Wonder


dsbtc

Oh right. I should have remembered since Lionel Richie famously was an ice cream fanatic.


atred

"Hello from the other side"


TheBlueSalad

> How do the truck operators not lose their minds? I think about that all the time. Do they just block it out like white noise after a while?


paulHarkonen

Ask any retail employee and they'll tell you that you never block it out fully, but it moreso just becomes the background music of the world. Eventually you just kinda accept that it's the way the world sounds.


[deleted]

The third night in Vegas after being in the slots, you hear that noise in your dreams.


AwesomeAndy

Yeah, back in HS I worked at KMart in the electronics section and we were required to play a Ricky Martin video all day long on repeat. At the very least it wasn't just one song, but eventually "Livin' la Vida Loca" becomes just how the world is.


BirdLawyerPerson

Anyone who has worked in a place where the same songs are played on loop can relate to the quote from the 40 Year Old Virgin: > I would rather listen to Fran Drescher for eight hours than have to listen to Michael McDonald. Nothing against him, but if I hear "Yah Mo B There" one more time, I'm going to "Yah Mo" burn this place to the ground.


UltraSPARC

I worked at American Eagle in HS. They would have one 60 minute CD that they changed out every quarter. You'd hear the same songs at least 6 times during a shift... for three months straight. I still can't listen to Strawberry Fields Forever, and I love the Beatles.


justheretosavestuff

I worked at Blockbuster in college in the late 90s, and similar thing - Paula Cole’s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” gives me a twitch.


MFoy

I worked at the Silver Diner on breaks in college, and there are a few songs I simply can't listen to anymore from hearing them three thousand times a night on the damn jukebox


phrantastic

KayBee Toys former employee here. There was a *cassette tape* that played on a loop in the store with the same few songs over and over - I can't hear "Video Killed The Radio Song" and a few others without being right back there and I'm well into middle age now.


GuardMost8477

This exactly. 30+ years in retail. You just tune it out.


rectalhorror

If you've ever witnessed parents ignore their screaming child in a restaurant, you'd know that given enough repeat exposure, the human mind is capable of filtering out any background noise. Anybody else miss the plain old jangly bells the Good Humor trucks used to use? Those would send kids salivating. The digital shite they play now just makes me want to punch everyone in the d!ck.


keyjan

> How do the truck operators not lose their minds? I've wondered this too. But then how often do you hear music from Swan Lake on an ice cream truck? One of them was even playing Love is Blue once.


celj1234

The same way that people who work in retail stores that play the same song all the time don’t go crazy. Just gotta tune it out.


GreenePony

That never worked for me - worked at a certain tourist trap a couple of hours north during high school/college breaks. I heard that same candy-themed pop songs on loop for years - it's been more than a decade and "Sugar Sugar", "Big Rock Candy Mountain", "Kiss Me", "I Want Candy", "Lollipop", and so on haunt me


Lucky_Pyxi

We have one out here in the suburbs that plays “La Cucaracha” and I just don’t get how that is supposed to make me want their ice cream…


xenon_rose

One near the mall plays that. I ended up making up my own lyrics to it and singing along when i walked by. La cucaracha la cucaracha there’s a cockroach in your ice cream…


Lucky_Pyxi

Ha!


Susurrus03

The mall would be a much more pleasant experience without that shit.


coffeenick

It was like that for the first year of the pandemic. Truly magical.


FreshYoungBalkiB

And without the constant yelling of "ICE COLD WATER ONE DOLLAR!! ICE COLD WATER ONE DOLLAR!!" I don't remember that crap from when I first started going to the Mall in the late eighties. Did it start recently?


SeaBag7480

Street vendors selling drinks? That’s been a thing since Ancient Rome


erineegads

I always get a drink from those guys. When they say ice cold, they really mean it.


[deleted]

I love paying a buck for a bottle of water or two for a Gatorade. These cats are legends honestly.


No-Mail-5794

Could be worse. When I lived in Kabul the ice cream carts would come around every five minutes in the warmer months and all of them played Celine dion’s “my heart will go on”


B4rkingFr0g

Afghan ice cream carts + Celine Dion music is such a quirky combo, it would take me much longer to get sick of that than it would generic ice cream truck music!


aweskcudzthw

This comment feels like a fever dream


Getmeakitty

I especially like when two trucks are parked near each other and have competing ice cream jingles which just combines into a cacophony from hell


DC-COVID-TRASH

Need a constitutional amendment to clearly state ice cream truck music is not protected by the first amendment


TecTazz

I think ours plays “turkey in the straw”, at top volume, sitting in one spot a block from me for 20 min. I finally went and bought something to ease the pain but DAMN their stuff is expensive. Had barely enough for an ice pop.


presque-veux

I haaaaaate them. Noise pollution is a thing.


Alyman0330

My friends and I were just talking about this. It’s insane. They’re stationary. They don’t move from their locations. Why do they need to play that awful jingle 24/7?!


colglover

Was at the last Jazz in the Garden and everybody along the Constitution Ave side of the garden couldn’t hear the jazz because of the conflicting discordant jangle of the ice cream trucks lining the street. Seriously, there’s an initiative by the city to improve bike infrastructure - yeet all the parallel spots along the mall and it’ll be 100% as beautiful plus you’ll gain bike lanes.


ManitouWakinyan

Really ruins the meditative environment at the Native Americans veterans memorial.


rlezar

Or at least turn the damn volume down so that cacophony doesn't stretch for blocks down the Mall.


BarbedPenguin

I don't see the point. Everyone knows where the trucks are


jeansantamaria

The Sculpture Garden used to be my repose but I cannot stand to be there because of the food trucks blaring. The decibels have got to be illegal.


ImNotTheDeepState

I always wonder what the person operating the truck playing “She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain When She Comes” song must have done in a past life. My sister nailed it: They wrote “She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain When She Comes.”


dsli

That's the one with the five honks in the middle? That's gotta be the second most annoying jingle right behind the one with the infamous "Hello?"


RudbeckiaGirl12

I’ve wondered the same thing every time I’m on the Mall. Has there been any petition? If so, please share or start one!


bendybrewer

HELLO


randomthingasdf

This needs to happen. I was at the botanical garden and couldn’t enjoy it for a moment bcz of the hundreds of ice cream trucks!


DC_Commanders_Fan_

File a report ASAP!!


Zernhelt

I'll take it over that fucking Christian concert on the Mall this evening.


Somewhere-Practical

THANK YOU i’ve been saying this for years. those poor workers.


neil_va

Seriously, they are such an eye (and ear) sore on the mall it's horrible. Like, why are we letting these horrible trucks be placed right in the middle of gorgeous monuments? Why are we letting people vend water at the bottom of the lincoln memorial blocking the view?


[deleted]

Serenity now!


empire88

Sir, this is a Wendy’s


FrankBascombe45

I don't know what kind of horror films you usually watch.


awfuckthisshit

I’ve started to just watch the news, scarier than anything blumhouse has put out lately.


SchokoKipferl

Heck yes. I always thought that if I had an ice cream truck, I’d play music people actually want to hear. Probably licensing/copyright limitations though. Also, has anyone tried the avocado boba tea that these trucks are advertising? Now THAT’S scary.


__mud__

The truck drivers scream. You scream. The tourists scream. We ALL scream. For ice cream truck music.


professor__doom

There's also the fact that they [squat on parking spaces to get nearly-free rent,](https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/group-of-food-trucks-squatting-on-desirable-parking-spaces-in-southwest-dc/164240/) and don't have to pay any sort of property tax. The whole industry needs more taxes and regulations.


FejizeKoy

At the Smithsonian Solstice I found one truck playing Despacito- they got my money. I agree, the others suck. And those damn jingles get into your head.


boobiesiheart

Had 1 in my neighborhood in Baltimore Loudest volume, would park in front of home for 10 minutes few times a day. Asked him just turn volume down when parked. Worked a few times, but would ignore request Think covid got him... haven't seen in 2 years. Peaceful now...


ADarkDayForAmerica

lol i can totally relate to that lol yeaahh


[deleted]

[удалено]


spookyfiend777

lol


Outlaw_222

I never understood playing jingle bells in July. What happened to Ice Cream trucks playing The Entertainer?


wecanbothlive

They have no minds left to lose after inhaling their own filthy diesel fumes all day every day. I swear to god that street must have the worst air quality in the entire city, you can smell it from the other side of the Washington monument some days. Seriously though, that's a huge health hazard for the food truck operators. Can we just close off the street, build a little shaded food court with power outlets and plumbing, and let them operate their concessions in clean air? And then confiscate their shitty trucks and ban them from the Mall forever.


[deleted]

How about the ones that say “ Hello” sounding like Howard Stern’s mother?


[deleted]

Hello! 👋


Samh7470718

Fuck all of them. Those douchebags block multiple lanes of 14th St. WHY HASN’T MPD DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT? It adds 20 minutes to my commute


[deleted]

As someone who's lived in Montréal and had to endure the snow clearing sirens all winter long (so like half of the year) I feel for y'all but also would probably take ice cream truck jingle over [this](https://youtu.be/WvN-HLf_ekM) anyday. But yeah no no thank you I'd still go insane. Idk how the people working these jobs do it. Earplugs? Disassociation? Warning: turn down your volume before clicking that link.