National Inane Answering Message Day

National Inane Answering Message Day, observed January 30th, humorously pokes fun at overly cute, lengthy, or unnecessarily elaborate voicemail and answering machine greetings. The observance dates back to the era when home answering machines were a novel technology in the 1980s and 1990s, and many people, delighted by the new gadget, recorded playful, joke-filled, or musical greetings for callers rather than a simple, direct message, sometimes to the frustration of anyone just trying to leave a quick note. While answering machines have largely given way to voicemail and smartphone messaging, the spirit of the day has carried over to modern voicemail greetings, out-of-office email auto-replies, and even elaborate social media auto-responses, all of which can suffer from the same tendency toward unnecessary length or overly cute wording. The holiday is celebrated with tongue-in-cheek humor rather than any serious activity, often used as a prompt for people to simplify their own voicemail greetings or to share particularly memorable, silly examples from the past. On National Inane Answering Message Day, people celebrate by joking about outdated answering machine culture or streamlining their own overly long greetings.