No Post on Sundays

Overview

No Posts On Sunday was a one-day initiative launched by fans of Harry Potter to refrain from submitting any post on Sunday, March 31st, 2013 in remembrance of the British actor Richard Griffiths who passed away from heart surgery complications earlier that week. In the film adaptations, Griffiths became well-known for his portrayal of Potter’s muggled uncle Vernon Dursley and the quote “No Post on Sundays” in referring to the fact that postal service is closed on Sundays. The event was observed on a number of online user-generated communities, most notably FunnyJunk, Reddit and Tumblr.

Background

On March 28th, 2013, it was reported that the British actor Richard Griffiths, best known for his starring role in Withnail & I, The History Boys and the Harry Potter films, has passed away at age of 65 from heart surgery complications at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire. In the Harry Potter film saga, Griffiths played the protagonist’s uncle Vernon Dursley, a character that is often remembered by the memorable quote “No posts on Sunday!” as heard in the first installment Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Development

In the following days, the news of Griffiths’ death was picked up by users on Reddit^[5] and FunnyJunk.^[3] On March 30th, FunnyJunk user lolzponies^[4] suggested a “day of silence” event to be held on Sunday as a tribute to Uncle Vernon’s famous quote “No post on Sundays.” Lolzponies’ proposal was met by positive reception within the community, leading to a series of duplicate messages and image macros in anticipation of the event. Ironically, FunnyJunk soon became inundated with image macro posts bearing the news that there will be no posts on Sunday.