Woman #1: It smells like church in here.
Woman #2: It really does!
–Elevator, Varick St
Woman #1: It smells like church in here.
Woman #2: It really does!
–Elevator, Varick St
Dude, in front of closed Staples: Staples doesn’t open until fucking noon? What are we, in a goddamn small town? Noon? Am I supposed to be in fucking church right now? God!
–Meeker St, Brooklyn
Overheard by: Simon
Girl on cell: Because I don’t function in the world of time so well.
–7th Ave b/w 27th & 28th St
Overheard by: John C
Pilot on PA: JetBlue welcomes you to New York City, where the local time is 1:40… 1:45… Kinda… I think.
–JFK
Law student to another: What time is it in the real world?
–Fordham Law School
Guy eating pancakes: Everything’s funny in retrospect, like the time I got that screwdriver stuck in my eye.
–IHOP, Brooklyn
Ancient Greek civilization professor: A sexual act, in some sense, for an observer is funny.
–Hunter College
Crazy lady: All the prostitutes need to be rounded up and stuck in churches! (teen girl laughs) You think that’s funny? It’s not gonna be funny when you are in a hospital addicted to crack!
–Water St & Broad St
Girl to her friend: Wouldn’t it be funny if human beings could only walk forward and backwards?
–8th St & 2nd Ave
Lady sitting with girlfriends: It’s funny because I’m pregnant, and he doesn’t know.
–Starbucks
Drunken Jets fan to friends in Jets jerseys: That’s not funny. You want to see something funny? (grabs wooden signpost, slams forehead into it) That’s funny!
–W 4th & Barrow
Overheard by: jira monkey
Female day‐drinking tourist: Oh shit, I left my vodka in the church!
–Outside Trinity Church
Man on cell: If it’s possible to ferment it, we have fermented it.
–7th St b/w 2nd & 3rd Ave
Middle‐aged man to younger man: You know how cats and dogs – they eat and then they go? In one end and out the other. I’m like that. My bladder has room for the equivalent of one good cocktail.
–10th Ave and W 50th St
Overheard by: Ah.…middle age
Commuter at 8 am: Beer. Beer.
–Grand Central
Overheard by: baconista
Old drunk walking into a liquor store, to clerk: Have you got my prescription?
–Broadway & 106th St
Overheard by: rickbruner
Cute chick on cell: If the Amish can do it, so can you. [Pause, then louder.] If the Amish can do it, so can you!
–113th & Amsterdam
Overheard by: Wild Dog Boy
Lady on cell: You tell my momma to get her ass to church and stop sinning!
–Grand Concourse, 205th St.
Overheard by: LSB
Black guy to another: Go to the Catholic church, cracka. They got good drugs.
–11th & A
Middle Eastern man: I believe in Islam and Allah, but I drink, I smoke, and I fuck. When I stop doing those things, then I’ll pray.
–C Train
Overheard by: Mark
Thug: I totally invented the Chuck Norris religion.
–Queens Mall
Overheard by: LSB
Guido: Excuse me, miss? Miss? Have I seen you in my church?
20‐something girl: No.
Guido: No, no, I definitely saw you in my church. We go to the same one.
20‐something girl, sighing: Sir… If I went to any house of worship, it’d be a synagogue. And I stay as far away from those as possible. Have a nice day now.
Guido: Aaaaawww, I liiike you!
–82nd & Broadway
Boat PA: Ladies and gentlemen on the top deck of the boat, please do not stand on the benches. If you fall overboard, you will die in this frigid, freezing water. Thank you, and enjoy your visit to Ellis island.
–Ellis Island Ferry
Overheard by: land lubber
Urban sophisticate: Steve Irwin’s death was random. That stingray did not know where his heart was!
–Metropolitan Opera
Overheard by: Opera Onlooker
Male suit to woman suit: So, hopefully you’re not the angel of death… Are you?
–53rd & Broadway
Overheard by: S&B
Teen guy to three teenage girls: I’m pretty sure I’m invincible and can’t die.
–6th Ave
Overheard by: Justin
Woman on cell: My trip went really well, except for Marilyn’s* death and all.
–52nd St & Madison
Overheard by: kinicke
50‐something professor: So, then the little girl goes back up into her room where she is reading bible verses while everyone else is in church. Then, she either dies all alone… Like Heath Ledger… Or she kills herself. We just don’t know.
–Barnard College
Girl on phone: Look, motherfucker — I’ll wear what I want to church on Sunday.
–Restaurant, 46th St
Black woman: Yeah, chips and soda for a dollar! That’s one church I won’t go back to.
–F train
Overheard by: Kevin Z
Guy on cell: I don’t need to fucking hear that at home! That’s what I’ve got church for!
–Broome & Allen
Mother to small daughter outside St. Patrick’s: Stop crying — I know it looks more like a haunted house than a church.
–St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 5th Ave
Black dude: Nigga, nuns ain’t real.
–Union Square
Overheard by: Gabriel
Husband pushing carriage to wife: You’re lucky I’m on my way to church right now, or I’d kill you.
–Upper West Side
Chick on cell: But the real question is, is he Catholic? And an insomniac?
–113th & Broadway
Overheard by: Poogins
Sequined Australian drag queen: Well, I know an Antichrist religion when I see it.
–2nd St & 2nd Ave
Overheard by: Alisha
Girl on phone: He told me he was raped by a Catholic priest when he was little, but like I don’t believe him.
–Butler Library, Columbia University
Train conductor: 110th Street, Cathedral Parkway. There are churches here, you know.
–1 Train
Man to woman, after getting off cell phone: Ah, that was Nancy – booty call. She says I gotta get over there before she’s got to go to church.
–Q Train
Overheard by: spygirl
Thug #1: How do you know all that about the church?
Thug #2: Because I was a muthafuckin' altar boy for five years!
--Pride Parade, 25th &5th
Overheard by: fellow ex-catholic
