Signs of life
Puny puns more homey than homely
Staff writer
“Without freedom of speech, we would not know who the idiots are.”
“Feeling a bit paranoid? Remember: you are not alone.”
“Somebody stole our limbo bar. Seriously, how low can you go?”
These idiosyncratic one-liners may sound familiar to residents and visitors to Marion. They are the work of Gene Winkler, the owner of G & J Video.
Winkler has operated a digital billboard in Marion since it was installed in August 2019.
The screen rests on a red brick column across from Central Park, greeting all who pass with various informational tidbits — the time, the weather, upcoming events, a “Welcome to Marion” message, a “Stronger Together” logo, and, of course, jokes.
The billboard’s LED lights shine from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. In the dark of night and early morning, its jokes and chipper notices pierce through the sky.
The billboard replaced a wooden sign with changeable letters, which had been operated by community enrichment director Margo Yates.
Although the city officially owns the billboard, Winker took over the work of running it.
“When they put it in there, you know, the city was all for doing it,” Winkler said. “I thought maybe Margo or one of the city clerks would take it over, but nobody wanted to do it. So if I didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done.”
Winkler does not write the jokes, but finds them on the internet. His current list is about 10 pages long.
“I went to YouTube and just put in ‘funny signs’ and then I just started writing,” Winkler said. “I come down and I change them every Sunday morning and put up two new ones.”
The jokes have become popular since Winkler started displaying them a year ago.
“I have a lot of people tell me they [like them],” he said.
Residents are welcome to send Winkler their best one-liners.
“Oh, sure, they can send them to me if they want to,” he said. “As long as they’re positive-thinking and not trying to do something that we’re not on.”
The billboard has a plaque at its base thanking 24 “major donors,” of which various businesses and individuals are included.
There is no mention of Winkler, but he says he doesn’t mind.
“I’m not doing it to get credit for it,” he said. “I’m just doing it for the community.”