After a heavy snowfall, someone cleared a path across an open, snow-covered square, but instead of a straight line they shovelled a long, looping zigzag. The overhead clip, uploaded to YouTube by Corporate Warrior under the title “Janitor’s Revenge: How to annoy people when it snows”, shows a pedestrian dutifully following every curve.
The Janitor’s Revenge snow path video
The video was uploaded in December 2010 and quickly spread as a winter gag. The camera looks down from above, so the whole design is visible at once: a narrow strip of cleared pavement that bends back and forth across a space a walker could cross in a few seconds. A pedestrian steps onto the path and follows its curves, turning a short walk into a slow slalom.
The title supplies the story, a caretaker taking playful revenge after a long morning of shovelling. The real charm is visual. From above, the viewer sees the shortcut the walker ignores, and every extra bend becomes part of the punchline.
Why people follow the cleared path
The clip works because people prefer a cleared route. Fresh snow hides kerbs, ice and puddles, soaks shoes and slows you down, so a shovelled strip looks like the safe, obvious choice even when it wanders. Nobody needs a sign or a barrier: the line in the snow does all the directing.
Planners have a name for the opposite behaviour. A desire path, also called a desire line or social trail, is the unplanned track people wear into grass when the official path is too long or missing. Normally, walkers cut corners. In the Janitor’s Revenge clip, the cleared strip wins over the shortcut, which is exactly why it is funny.
How snow reveals the routes people want
Snow is one of the best tools for seeing how people really move. In Finland, city planners visit parks right after the first snowfall, when the formal paths are hidden, and study the footprints. The tracks show the routes people naturally choose, and planners use them to decide where new paths should go.
The same principle explains a lot about winter cities. Research on trails shows that as few as 15 passes can create a distinct track. Once a line exists, most people follow it, and fresh snow makes every line visible at once.
Playful snow clearing at home
A winding path is a great joke in a garden or backyard, where it can become a maze for children or a dog. Keep public routes straight and clear: entrances, crossings and bus stops matter most for people carrying shopping, pushing prams or using wheelchairs. For a playful version, see Finn’s backyard snow maze, or the scale of snow art in the large Marilyn Monroe portrait made on a university playing field.
Related reading
- Janitor’s Revenge: A Snow-Shovelling Visual Joke
- A Snow-Covered Car and the Window That Changes the Joke
- A First Drag-Lift Attempt in Veysonnaz
Sources
- YouTube – Janitor’s Revenge: How to annoy people when it snows (Corporate Warrior)
- Wikipedia – Desire path
- Video and still: CorporateWarrior
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