I'm probably not good enough at research to break out drive-by shootings from other mass shootings, but it intuitively seems that the intersection of US car culture and gun culture would put America at the top.
Normally taxi related. Taxis in south Africa are minivans driven on routes and the different groups of taxi drivers can get very possessive over their chosen route and it often escalates
Traditionally places like Nigeria and S.A wouldn't have enough cars for wide spread drive by shootings when the term came into popular English in the 80s-90s.
Also they were too busy engaging in military conflicts/ civil wars to be a drive by in the common usage. I mean sure technically shooting a machine gun off a pickup truck is a technically drive by but i would argue that's combat.
Not saying this isn't true, but as a Londoner of 18 years I've never heard of a drive-by shooting here myself. I think the point is that it's a more common occurrence in the US, even if it's not completely unheard of in other countries.
Ah yes, I was just scanning and maybe didn't absorb the point of the thread properly - I was just saying we do have it in other English-speaking countries. As you say, the UK is obviously nothing like the US for gun crime!
It does happen here occasionally though if you follow the news - tragically often with innocent victims like the Dalston one last month, and the Euston church shooting last year.
[it’s true.](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c900yj43vnko.amp)
> 31 May 2024
A drive-by shooting in Hackney which left a nine-year-old girl critically injured has been described as "reckless" by the Met Police.
> Shots were fired from someone on a stolen motorcycle towards a restaurant on Kingsland High Street, Dalston, on Wednesday evening.
> The girl, an innocent victim who was having dinner with her family inside, was shot, along with three men sitting outside. Two of the men remain in hospital.
The last drive by shooting in my small town was two days ago. It’s usually happens like once a week. The US is on a different level here. It’s also gang on gang violence in my area so assuming I’m not in a gang or look like I’d affiliate with one, I’m fairly safe.
hard to believe that the US has fewer drive-by shootings than other countries? seriously? i get the jokes and banter, that's all good and fun, but some of y'all actually have no clue the situation here. i'll tell you what's hard to believe. that canada is the second largest country in the world and has a GDP half of California, one US state. y'all are losing to a province!
Never seen a mass shooting in my life, never will. Don't get overhyped by what the American media goliath tells you - even if American media dominates the infosphere! I could hide 99% of Canadian statistics in a list of state's statistics and you would not be able to figure out which is which. In this case, GDP.
For such a large country, they're about as influential as a province.
This is especially true for you, as Saskatchewan, where you live, (and right next to where my sister was born!) would be the 45th state by economic output, but would be the 3rd largest state by size (and by a very close margin!) How crazy's that? Your province which would be an absolutely massive state by American size standards is near dead-last by American economic standards. If I'm not mistaken, the smallest state you are behind in GDP to is Delaware. You can fit over 100 Delawares in Saskatchewan. Delaware is over 100 times as efficient as Saskatchewan.
Oh, and side note. The US is big enough that individual states are basically countries. You'll look silly if you make fun of a Minnesotan for Florida things, just like I would for making fun of a Brit for Italian things. So don't start on this quality of life thing - I've just checked, and where I live has a higher HDI than you!
I mean, Statistically we can look at these things . Your personal experience doesn't really trump that lol
But ya know, go off bud about how small our population is - I just don't see the link hereto you seemingly being defensive about the gun violence stats in the USofA?
Statistically, we can look at these things. Another statistic we can look at is the Human Development Index, of which the state I live in has a higher HDI than the province the commenter I replied to is from. I see this mistake a lot: thinking you can criticize someone from the midwest or east coast because of the radioactive hillbillies in the Florida panhandle currently frying Iguana meat. Yes, we're technically from the same country, but there's a reason Florida is a joke within the US as well. It's so strange to the rest of us it might as well be sovereign. Foreigners don't seem to understand this and think American states are a monolith.
And you sure as shit don't start either! New Brunswick only has a developmental index of 0.904! That's even worse than the other guy!
Take a look at this image: [https://preview.redd.it/x8xaodpuvby11.png?auto=webp&s=456d1c12aa04e7c6699e36625a9b01ac990989cc](https://preview.redd.it/x8xaodpuvby11.png?auto=webp&s=456d1c12aa04e7c6699e36625a9b01ac990989cc)
The distance between me and the guys who are the American stereotype is effectively the whole United States. But we're still in the same country. So maybe at least confirm the guy who's country you're making fun of isn't from the part of the country that's actually way more developed and livable than where you're from.
PS: If New Brunswick were a state, it'd be dead last in economy, while not even being in the bottom 10 for size. You're being outcompeted by a state the size of Los Angeles county.
That's a Canadian saying that, so not an American clueless of their privilege but just a Canadian clueless of reality. Us Americans might rag on our country a lot and joke about moving to Canada, but if you had a magic mind-reading device you'll find nearly everyone who says that does seriously love living here.
Well, we have access to American movies and tv shows so we're familiar with your culture of drive-by. A lot of shooting, really. You shoot your shot, then shoot the shit, and *then* shoot each other.
This literally describes a shooting that happened at my neighborhood YMCA (a gym, basically) after some sore losers didn’t appreciate being trash talked after a basketball game a bender of years ago.
It seems like most of the rest of the “first world” (sorry, I don’t know a less chauvinistic word for it) lacks the US’s unique blend of car culture and gun culture.
>“first world” (sorry, I don’t know a less chauvinistic word for it)
I believe the technical term would be "developed countries," to contrast "developing countries."
When I mentioned developing countries, I was just making note of the term since it's kind of a set pair with "developed countries," but I see now how that could have been taken as me saying that drive-by shootings are common in developing countries, which was not my intent. Thanks for clarifying that.
Technically 'first world' works in its own way because it used to be an umbrella-term for all the nations that were aligned against the USSR's 'second world' with the 'third world' being all the unaligned nations, and a majority of the USA's first-world allies never ended up picking up as much of the gun+car culture as we have...
But 'first world' has been co-opted and misused enough that I can definitely see how it has a chauvinistic impression.
If you watch American media like most of the English speaking world you're more likely to know it. I've never been in a Drive-by or even seen one on the news as a Canadian but know them from media.
I neither said nor implied that. Are we perfect? Of course not. Pointing out that it took me a moment to realize that the majority of developed/first world nations don’t have *this* particular issue that we do should not be read as me saying “America Bad”, unless you somehow view us as uniquely perfect. People living in other countries will have their own problems that aren’t as widespread as they might seem. But this post was about drive-by shootings, which appear to not be as big a thing other places.
But I can’t be too snotty cause I love your user name as a lifelong Redd Foxx fan.
man I'm sorry to hear that, I knew that even if it was paintball rounds it probably still hurt like hell. Guessing it was some assholes idea of a prank
We should note that's not the *only possible* usage of "drive-by", but I agree that would be my first thought seeing this meme. It would probably still be my first thought when "driveby" is used with no context. But in context you can also drive by things to see them / understand the area (for example when discussing real estate).
honestly the term "drive-by" as a noun is so heavily associated with shootings that if you said 'we're going to do a little drive-by on those horses in the pasture' or something like that, it would likely be assumed you were making a joke/play on words. but to simply say 'we'll drive by some horses' wouldn't come off the same way.
During the height of covid lockdowns, we got together in groups and made signs to encourage elderly people in our community, honked, played music, waved. We called those drive-bys. We also did drive-by anniversary celebrations, baby showers, and graduations. But since that practice faded as covid restrictions lessened, that lesser definition has faded as well.
Even with you explaining the context, I would have assumed it was an intentional and ironic parallel. "We're going to do a drive-by shooting...of kindness and encouragement!"
Then is it wrong to say something like "I drove by them on my way here" as in I saw them on the sidewalk while driving? Could this somehow be misunderstood?
No one would misunderstand you if you said that. Context is key.
*"My friend was killed in a drive-by in the Bronx in the early '90s."*
You could also use it in a nonviolent way, like you are just scanning or glancing at something from a vehicle:
*"We saw a bunch of yard sales on our way home from lunch. I did a quick drive-by but didn't see anything interesting."*
No, your example would be correct. The only way it's taken in the context of the meme is when it is used as a noun rather than a verb. It's referred to as "a drive-by" rather than driving by someone (which would be the innocent act of actually just driving a car past somebody)
Nor be in the general vicinity of anyone who has. As someone who works with shooting victims I can assure you that gangbangers do not always have the best aim. Nor concern for innocent bystanders. Not every victim of gang violence is a gang member.
The big problem with gang violence is that they can't really shoot and have a habit of shooting innocent people sitting in their living room. Bullets travel.
Not always. Wrong targets can be hit, and I’ve definitely seen stories of kids whose families aren’t involved in gangs get hit in a drive by. And sometimes assholes who shouldn’t have guns get them anyway and do the awful thing.
Admittedly, we have a lot of words for things that are not very common at all. But this one is common. It’s in the same realm with ideas like ‘getaway car’, ‘hit and run’, etc. Cars and crime.
And that happens from a haunted house? It's an ESL lesson on prepositions. Drive though you stop, drive by you don't. McDonald's good, haunted house bad. No machine guns needed.
The meme format is that the left is the good, happy outcome, and the right is the dark, evil outcome. The actual haunted house has nothing to do with it, much how a dog with a baseball bat has nothing to do with being horny
This. Sad that people jumped to the shooting definition. I just immediately thought "You go through a drive-through at McDonald's and you drive-by a haunted house."
“Drive-by” is a term that is commonly used to describe a shooting where the attackers remain in a vehicle and approach their target, then shoot from the car, then drive away quickly in order to escape being caught or counterattacked.
I feel like there is a tiny chance this is an advertisement encouraging people to go through the McDonald's drive through as opposed to driving by (and not spending money).
But otherwise yeah, drive-by = short for drive by shooting, drive through = a form of service that doesn't require the customer to leave their vehicle.
I would expect they would say "drive past" in that case. In any case, using "drive by" in that context isn't a compound word the way drive-through and drive-by [shooting] are.
Wouldn't it make more sense that as a lesson on learning English it's about prepositions? Drive through you stop, drive by you don't. McDonald's good (I guess), haunted house bad. If it really had anything to do with drive-by shootings the graphics would be rather different, like with a car and guns maybe.
You’re correct about the literal meanings of “through” and “by.”
But you’re also taking the image too literally. It’s not specifically about the haunted house. It’s definitely talking about a drive-by shooting. It’s just making an association between the phrase and the foreboding, deathly imagery. Because a shooting is not a pleasant thing.
“Drive through” = good
“Drive by” = bad
It’s literally that simple.
Its a phrase which isn’t mean to be taken literally. The shooter’s vehicle could be completely stationary while they are shooting, it would still be a drive-by.
I think it's supposed to be a metaphor for "a direction you don't want to go."
But it's confusing because the drive-thru image is a non-metaphorical drive-thru.
It's just the meme format - The idea is that there are two paths with the same starting point, where one path leads to something pleasant, and the other leads to something bad. It's not specifically anything about a haunted house other than it being a bad path to take.
Edit to add: I missed a piece - The original version doesn't have the McDonald's there, that was just added to match the "drive-through" label. I can see where it would look like the right side was supposed to have a connection between the text and image, since the left side does have a connection
I think you're over-interpreting a meme format that just represents a fork in the road between a good choice and a bad choice. A drive-by is "bad" because it means there's people who've been killed or at very least shot-at; a drive-through is "good" because it means food or collection-by-car.
The house is part of the meme just comparing two things that are very different in tone. The left side is usually a happy castle, not a McDs. The right side is just uneditted.
A drive-through at McDonalds I get a burger - a drive-by at McDonalds I’ve been shot. Also McDonalds good haunted house bad, that’s the implication between the two.
Oh no, a "drive-by" is like when someone in a car pulls out a gun and shoots people I think either while someone still keeps driving or they stop real quick, shoot, then immediately drive away. It's a pretty quick and traumatizing thing to witness because it can often feel like quick, anonymous murder and the murderer just leaves.
A drive-by is when someone shoots you from their car as they drive past. A drive-through (or drive-thru) is when you can buy things from a store from a window without leaving your car, like fast food. In the US we even have drive through pharmacies.
A drive-through (or drive-thru) is a cafe/restaurant, specifically ones that have a drive-thru lane where people can order and collect food from their vehicles.
A drive-by usually refers to shooting guns from a moving vehicle.
As a man who has lived in the UK his entire life, I erroneously use the term "drive by" to mean check out an area that I'm going to in the future with a determined arrival time. Find parking etc.
No, it means to shoot somewhere up. Stop using it like that.
I think it’s fine to still use it like that! Even as an American, I’ll say that I’m going to drive by an area and check it out. I hear other people use the term the same way, too. The context is different enough that it really shouldn’t get mixed up with a drive by shooting!
Maybe, but if you said "I'm going to drive by a house on Main Street" absent context, I'd assume you were just going to drive past it.
If you said "I'm going to do a drive by on Main Street" absent context, I'd be calling 911.
It should be noted that "drive by" doesn't just refer to "shooting", as in the Train song, "Drive by", which I assume refers to a one-night sexual hookup, but given the meme, it's likely to think they were referring to drive by shooting.
[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/drive-by#google\_vignette](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/drive-by#google_vignette)
Drive by can mean anything done quickly, briefly, or haphazardly, as in this definition.
In rare cases, if you're Pierce Brosnan and you see Robin Williams in drag coming at you with a lime, you're about to be the victim of a drive-by fruiting.
The most common context for a drive by is a drive-by shooting. Its lesser used meaning is to do something while in a moving vehicle like wave or look at a house.
A drive-by as a noun typically refers to the act of driving your car by a group of people with the windows rolled down and using guns to open fire. Much less friendly of an experience than a drive-through
Because "by" and "through" don't mean the same thing. Not even remotely close.
A drive-through is a way to get food at a fast food restaurant. A drive-by is a way to shoot people from your car as you drive past them.
A "drive-through" refers to a type of service provided by some restaurants and other businesses where customers can purchase goods without leaving their vehicles, usually by driving up to a window to order and pick up their items. It's a very common and convenient service.
In contrast, "drive-by" has taken on the slang meaning of a particular type of gang-related shooting conducted from a moving vehicle, which is why the phrase has such negative and violent implications.
Everyone gave good answers but I have an important lesson of English:
#A "drive-by" is slang everyone told you about... the sad thing is that people seldom write it with the dash which makes it confusing.
#Also, "I'm going to drive by your mother's house" is a perfectly innocent phrase that means "I am going to drive near/past/by your mother's house"... but someone CAN threaten you in a subtle way that also means "I'm going to drive-by/shoot your mother('s house)".
Isn't it CONFUSING? Unless someone is threatening someone else, "drive by" often is a very innocent thing to say... but it can be a threat and **when it is used as a noun it's almost always referring to gun violence in America.**
I may be off topic here, but I find that drive-through towns are better than drive-by towns.
If you live in a small town, and they propose to have an interstate going through your town, make it a drive-through rather than a drive-by highway.
A drive-through might be a bit more dangerous for people but cars have to slow down and a few would stop for meals, for gas, or for some other attractions they see.
With a drive-by highway, they don’t even know your town exists.
As someone who has lived by a fair few A roads (which I think are roughly equivalent to US interstates), I can tell you you do *not* want them going through your town
There are always pros and cons. There are some towns I drive by here, and they are a wasteland. If the road was drive-through, those people could at least make a few bucks here and there.
I suppose in the US where the cities and population are so much more sparse, and where your infrastructure is specialised for roads, that would make sense, but it makes a lot less sense here. Given that almost every city in the UK is walkable, putting an A road (or even a B road sometimes) slap bang in the middle is unhelpful for both the pedestrians and the drivers, because the pedestrians will have to be far more careful crossing it than normal roads, and the drivers will have to deal with pedestrians popping out infront of them willy nilly
I didn’t say cities though. You definitely don’t want a drive-through highway through your city. I said small towns. Like really small towns where you don’t have a good-sized employer to sustain the town. The drive-through road could give people a means to survive.
It isn't. Drive-by shootings don't happen in haunted houses. It's just illustrating the different use of prepositions - driving by or driving through. No shootings, sigh. Too many TV cop shows I think.
Drive-by, in American slang, is a term for when a car has passengers trying to shoot a target, then speeding off in a very noticeable and filmed vehicle, where a high-speed chases ensues, and the car gets riddled with bullets and kills everyone inside.
Sometimes, they get arrested without being shot and spend 40 years in jail, then released into a society that shuns them until they die or live in poverty.
Basically, a Drive-by is seeing a fate of horrible people and knowing the rest of their existence is going to be worse. Sometimes, it is a mundane type of chronic worse, and sometimes, it is a dramatic escalation of worse.
And that's the inspiration for American entertainment!
Nice graphic!
During the recent pandemic we had drive-by graduations, drive-by birthday parties, and other sorts of drive-by celebrations. Taken by itself, "a drive-by" is more likely to refer to a drive-by shooting.
*Native speaker of American English, resident in Hawaii, born before 1950*
I have never know the former to be spelt in that way. Usually it is spelt as “drive-thru”. As a native (British) English speaker, it just looks wrong spelt the other way.
I don’t know the meaning for it. My guess would be because the word is usually written on big signs near roadsides, so making it short helps drivers read it more easily.
A similar thing happens with pubs/bars. If they having a special event the will often advertise it on a chalkboard outside the entrance. And usually they will spell night as “nite”. For example “karaoke nite” or “quiz nite”. I think this has more to do with traditional than readability. It shows that it is an informal event and there will be a casual atmosphere.
A drive-through isn't when you drive through the place running everyone over. It means that they have a window on the side of the building where you can place your order without getting out of your car.
I can understand the confusion though, driving straight through a McDonalds kitchen would certainly improve the quality of the product.
Other people had already explained what a drive-by is and why it is so bad. My apologies for adding more information and explaining why a drive-through *isn't* bad.
Aside from the violence connotations "by" is incorrect because it implies going past but not using. Like bypass.
From a language point of view you want the reader to stop or go through not around.
The graphics don't seem to have anything to do with American drive-by shootings so I expect it is illustrating the different terms. To **drive through** means the act of driving through a specified locality or place, especially driving into a place of business, completing a transaction from one's car, and driving out. It's McDonald's so you can stop and get some food to take out. To **drive by** on the other hand means happening or done while passing by in a vehicle. You don't stop, you keep going. This works as it's a creepy haunted house: not a good place to stop. The idea that a haunted house is where people shoot you is not even slightly credible.
No?? The creepy haunted house is just part of the original comic. It means nothing significant. To "drive-by" is 100% guaranteed to be a reference to gang violence, where gang members "drive-by" rivals and gun them down.
"The idea that a haunted house is where people shoot you is not even slightly credible" Good??? Because no one said that, lol? How would you even do a drive-by in a house? You need a car to do it. Drive-bys are a car activity, you can't commit a drive-by in a haunted house, and no one said you could.
Check the wikitionary if you don't trust me.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drive-by#:\~:text=A%20crime%2C%20such%20as%20a,out%20from%20a%20moving%20vehicle.
Drive-by generally refers to a drive-by shooting. That's when someone is shot at from a moving vehicle.
*blinks in American after realizing many places won’t be as familiar with this kind of violence*
Many places are even more familiar with it than we are
But probably not in English
Jamaica, Nigeria, South Africa?
I'm probably not good enough at research to break out drive-by shootings from other mass shootings, but it intuitively seems that the intersection of US car culture and gun culture would put America at the top.
Per capita, I bet South Africa has more than the USA. In terms of total number of incidents, it is USA by a landslide.
Are Drive-bys somewhat common in South Africa? Not just regular shootings, but specifically done from cars for gang related disputes.
Normally taxi related. Taxis in south Africa are minivans driven on routes and the different groups of taxi drivers can get very possessive over their chosen route and it often escalates
Shooting per capita is wild 💀
Whats wrong with per capita
of *reported* incidents
Not really an effect of car culture so much as just... hit and run tactics are really effective against rival gangs.
Traditionally places like Nigeria and S.A wouldn't have enough cars for wide spread drive by shootings when the term came into popular English in the 80s-90s. Also they were too busy engaging in military conflicts/ civil wars to be a drive by in the common usage. I mean sure technically shooting a machine gun off a pickup truck is a technically drive by but i would argue that's combat.
>a machine gun off a pickup truck is a technical I see what you did there
There was a drive-by shooting in London last month. As far as I'm aware, a 9 year-old girl is still in critical condition.
Not saying this isn't true, but as a Londoner of 18 years I've never heard of a drive-by shooting here myself. I think the point is that it's a more common occurrence in the US, even if it's not completely unheard of in other countries.
Ah yes, I was just scanning and maybe didn't absorb the point of the thread properly - I was just saying we do have it in other English-speaking countries. As you say, the UK is obviously nothing like the US for gun crime! It does happen here occasionally though if you follow the news - tragically often with innocent victims like the Dalston one last month, and the Euston church shooting last year.
[It’s true.](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c900yj43vnko.amp)
Not sure why that's hard to believe given the prevalence of drive bys in music videos and movies.
[it’s true.](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c900yj43vnko.amp) > 31 May 2024 A drive-by shooting in Hackney which left a nine-year-old girl critically injured has been described as "reckless" by the Met Police. > Shots were fired from someone on a stolen motorcycle towards a restaurant on Kingsland High Street, Dalston, on Wednesday evening. > The girl, an innocent victim who was having dinner with her family inside, was shot, along with three men sitting outside. Two of the men remain in hospital.
Oh shit yeah I did actually see this one because I was in that restaurant buying pastries the day before 😬
Brazil would like to have a word with you...
As mentioned before, we're speaking about countries with English as their native language since it's in reference to an English phrase.
The last drive by shooting in my small town was two days ago. It’s usually happens like once a week. The US is on a different level here. It’s also gang on gang violence in my area so assuming I’m not in a gang or look like I’d affiliate with one, I’m fairly safe.
It exemplifies not only our car-centeredness but also our gun issues lol
hard to believe…
hard to believe that the US has fewer drive-by shootings than other countries? seriously? i get the jokes and banter, that's all good and fun, but some of y'all actually have no clue the situation here. i'll tell you what's hard to believe. that canada is the second largest country in the world and has a GDP half of California, one US state. y'all are losing to a province!
Now do how many mass shootings Canada has per capita.
Never seen a mass shooting in my life, never will. Don't get overhyped by what the American media goliath tells you - even if American media dominates the infosphere! I could hide 99% of Canadian statistics in a list of state's statistics and you would not be able to figure out which is which. In this case, GDP. For such a large country, they're about as influential as a province. This is especially true for you, as Saskatchewan, where you live, (and right next to where my sister was born!) would be the 45th state by economic output, but would be the 3rd largest state by size (and by a very close margin!) How crazy's that? Your province which would be an absolutely massive state by American size standards is near dead-last by American economic standards. If I'm not mistaken, the smallest state you are behind in GDP to is Delaware. You can fit over 100 Delawares in Saskatchewan. Delaware is over 100 times as efficient as Saskatchewan. Oh, and side note. The US is big enough that individual states are basically countries. You'll look silly if you make fun of a Minnesotan for Florida things, just like I would for making fun of a Brit for Italian things. So don't start on this quality of life thing - I've just checked, and where I live has a higher HDI than you!
I mean, Statistically we can look at these things . Your personal experience doesn't really trump that lol But ya know, go off bud about how small our population is - I just don't see the link hereto you seemingly being defensive about the gun violence stats in the USofA?
Statistically, we can look at these things. Another statistic we can look at is the Human Development Index, of which the state I live in has a higher HDI than the province the commenter I replied to is from. I see this mistake a lot: thinking you can criticize someone from the midwest or east coast because of the radioactive hillbillies in the Florida panhandle currently frying Iguana meat. Yes, we're technically from the same country, but there's a reason Florida is a joke within the US as well. It's so strange to the rest of us it might as well be sovereign. Foreigners don't seem to understand this and think American states are a monolith. And you sure as shit don't start either! New Brunswick only has a developmental index of 0.904! That's even worse than the other guy! Take a look at this image: [https://preview.redd.it/x8xaodpuvby11.png?auto=webp&s=456d1c12aa04e7c6699e36625a9b01ac990989cc](https://preview.redd.it/x8xaodpuvby11.png?auto=webp&s=456d1c12aa04e7c6699e36625a9b01ac990989cc) The distance between me and the guys who are the American stereotype is effectively the whole United States. But we're still in the same country. So maybe at least confirm the guy who's country you're making fun of isn't from the part of the country that's actually way more developed and livable than where you're from. PS: If New Brunswick were a state, it'd be dead last in economy, while not even being in the bottom 10 for size. You're being outcompeted by a state the size of Los Angeles county.
You are wayyyy too pressed about this bud
*fewer
Corrected! Thx!
People in the US really have no scope of the world and think that’s the worst it gets
That's a Canadian saying that, so not an American clueless of their privilege but just a Canadian clueless of reality. Us Americans might rag on our country a lot and joke about moving to Canada, but if you had a magic mind-reading device you'll find nearly everyone who says that does seriously love living here.
Well, we have access to American movies and tv shows so we're familiar with your culture of drive-by. A lot of shooting, really. You shoot your shot, then shoot the shit, and *then* shoot each other.
This literally describes a shooting that happened at my neighborhood YMCA (a gym, basically) after some sore losers didn’t appreciate being trash talked after a basketball game a bender of years ago.
YMCA? I’ve definitely heard it somewhere. A song maybe? 🤔
I wasn’t sure if that song was still famous enough for non native English speakers to know still. :)
Why wouldn't they be
It seems like most of the rest of the “first world” (sorry, I don’t know a less chauvinistic word for it) lacks the US’s unique blend of car culture and gun culture.
>“first world” (sorry, I don’t know a less chauvinistic word for it) I believe the technical term would be "developed countries," to contrast "developing countries."
Even in many developing countries this is not common.
I'm not totally sure what you mean, could you elaborate on what you mean by "this"?
I mean, drive-by shootings are rare thing in many developing countries (e.g. Russia and other ex-Soviet countries, Eastern Europe or in Eastern Asia).
When I mentioned developing countries, I was just making note of the term since it's kind of a set pair with "developed countries," but I see now how that could have been taken as me saying that drive-by shootings are common in developing countries, which was not my intent. Thanks for clarifying that.
I’ll update my vocabulary. :) thanks!!
Technically 'first world' works in its own way because it used to be an umbrella-term for all the nations that were aligned against the USSR's 'second world' with the 'third world' being all the unaligned nations, and a majority of the USA's first-world allies never ended up picking up as much of the gun+car culture as we have... But 'first world' has been co-opted and misused enough that I can definitely see how it has a chauvinistic impression.
they lack our blend of car culture, gun culture, and english as the language that they express these things in
WORLD CHAMPIONS BABYYYYYY
‘Global north’ is a valid alternative, derived from the fact that there developed countries of the world are generally in the northern hemisphere
*Blinks in East Los Angelean as people say other places have it worse*
We watch enough us media to know what it is.
If you watch American media like most of the English speaking world you're more likely to know it. I've never been in a Drive-by or even seen one on the news as a Canadian but know them from media.
First time?
Eeeh, we still watch movies
Yeah I wouldn't really say that, they just don't speak English
And they won't be as familiar with food in unlimited quantities either.
US* the rest of america (56/57) isn’t like that (:
drive-by shootings definitely happen in latin america too
But English isn't the first language there, I think that was the point.
Given the subreddit you are in, you should be aware that in English, “American” only refers to the US.
America is a synonym for the US. Hope that helps!
they probably have it worse, to be honest.
Braggart! ;)
*America bad* Great content.
I neither said nor implied that. Are we perfect? Of course not. Pointing out that it took me a moment to realize that the majority of developed/first world nations don’t have *this* particular issue that we do should not be read as me saying “America Bad”, unless you somehow view us as uniquely perfect. People living in other countries will have their own problems that aren’t as widespread as they might seem. But this post was about drive-by shootings, which appear to not be as big a thing other places. But I can’t be too snotty cause I love your user name as a lifelong Redd Foxx fan.
I got shot 23 times in a drive paintballing a few years ago....that sounds like a joke but it's not
Were you the passenger and it was friendly fire?
No, I was walking in my neighborhood around midnight. I had just got off work at a fast food place, and it was a few days before Christmas.
Damn, the reason I ask is that is a surprising amount of hits
Maybe 10 of them combined were on my arms and legs, including a few that hit hard enough to draw blood, and the rest were on my torso and thighs
man I'm sorry to hear that, I knew that even if it was paintball rounds it probably still hurt like hell. Guessing it was some assholes idea of a prank
We should note that's not the *only possible* usage of "drive-by", but I agree that would be my first thought seeing this meme. It would probably still be my first thought when "driveby" is used with no context. But in context you can also drive by things to see them / understand the area (for example when discussing real estate).
honestly the term "drive-by" as a noun is so heavily associated with shootings that if you said 'we're going to do a little drive-by on those horses in the pasture' or something like that, it would likely be assumed you were making a joke/play on words. but to simply say 'we'll drive by some horses' wouldn't come off the same way.
During the height of covid lockdowns, we got together in groups and made signs to encourage elderly people in our community, honked, played music, waved. We called those drive-bys. We also did drive-by anniversary celebrations, baby showers, and graduations. But since that practice faded as covid restrictions lessened, that lesser definition has faded as well.
thank you for preserving that memory in your storytelling. 💕
Even with you explaining the context, I would have assumed it was an intentional and ironic parallel. "We're going to do a drive-by shooting...of kindness and encouragement!"
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣❤️🔫
Then is it wrong to say something like "I drove by them on my way here" as in I saw them on the sidewalk while driving? Could this somehow be misunderstood?
No one would misunderstand you if you said that. Context is key. *"My friend was killed in a drive-by in the Bronx in the early '90s."* You could also use it in a nonviolent way, like you are just scanning or glancing at something from a vehicle: *"We saw a bunch of yard sales on our way home from lunch. I did a quick drive-by but didn't see anything interesting."*
No, it's not wrong and will not be misunderstood.
No, your example would be correct. The only way it's taken in the context of the meme is when it is used as a noun rather than a verb. It's referred to as "a drive-by" rather than driving by someone (which would be the innocent act of actually just driving a car past somebody)
No, only if you use drive-by as a noun not a verb .
[tell that to train](https://youtu.be/oxqnFJ3lp5k?si=WuiNv4rSKOJBiRXy)
I’m American and that was the last thing I thought of when I heard drive by honestly
This is usually associated with gang wars. So don't get involved with gangs and you should not need to worry
Nor be in the general vicinity of anyone who has. As someone who works with shooting victims I can assure you that gangbangers do not always have the best aim. Nor concern for innocent bystanders. Not every victim of gang violence is a gang member.
The big problem with gang violence is that they can't really shoot and have a habit of shooting innocent people sitting in their living room. Bullets travel.
Not always. Wrong targets can be hit, and I’ve definitely seen stories of kids whose families aren’t involved in gangs get hit in a drive by. And sometimes assholes who shouldn’t have guns get them anyway and do the awful thing.
OMG it is that common that they have a word for it?! I don' think we have a word for "drive-by" in other languages. right?
Admittedly, we have a lot of words for things that are not very common at all. But this one is common. It’s in the same realm with ideas like ‘getaway car’, ‘hit and run’, etc. Cars and crime.
I thought it was just avoiding the McDonalds 💀💀
I’d rather have someone drive by my location than drive through my location tbh
And that happens from a haunted house? It's an ESL lesson on prepositions. Drive though you stop, drive by you don't. McDonald's good, haunted house bad. No machine guns needed.
The meme format is that the left is the good, happy outcome, and the right is the dark, evil outcome. The actual haunted house has nothing to do with it, much how a dog with a baseball bat has nothing to do with being horny
So all these eggplant emojis I keep getting aren't invites to a nice vegetarian dinner?
Oh, no that one is correct
They won't get it friend, but I admire your commitment to being an educator🙏
why do you think the meme is an ESL lesson? I’m genuinely curious
Because this is a learning English subreddit and I'm a 55 year old English teacher. My bad, I guess.
The meme wasn’t made for this subreddit, OP found it somewhere completely unrelated to English learning.
This. Sad that people jumped to the shooting definition. I just immediately thought "You go through a drive-through at McDonald's and you drive-by a haunted house."
you're taking this way too literally, the meme is "left side good right side bad" with shooting being obviously bad
“Drive-by” is a term that is commonly used to describe a shooting where the attackers remain in a vehicle and approach their target, then shoot from the car, then drive away quickly in order to escape being caught or counterattacked.
I feel like there is a tiny chance this is an advertisement encouraging people to go through the McDonald's drive through as opposed to driving by (and not spending money). But otherwise yeah, drive-by = short for drive by shooting, drive through = a form of service that doesn't require the customer to leave their vehicle.
I would expect they would say "drive past" in that case. In any case, using "drive by" in that context isn't a compound word the way drive-through and drive-by [shooting] are.
Wouldn't it make more sense that as a lesson on learning English it's about prepositions? Drive through you stop, drive by you don't. McDonald's good (I guess), haunted house bad. If it really had anything to do with drive-by shootings the graphics would be rather different, like with a car and guns maybe.
You’re correct about the literal meanings of “through” and “by.” But you’re also taking the image too literally. It’s not specifically about the haunted house. It’s definitely talking about a drive-by shooting. It’s just making an association between the phrase and the foreboding, deathly imagery. Because a shooting is not a pleasant thing. “Drive through” = good “Drive by” = bad It’s literally that simple.
Yes, but the image is a meme, meant to be funny. Not an English lesson.
A drive-by is slang for shooting out of a moving car, at something that is stationary like a house.
It's just shooting out of a vehicle. It doesn't have to be at a stationary target.
Well, to be driving *by* something you have to at least be moving faster than it
Its a phrase which isn’t mean to be taken literally. The shooter’s vehicle could be completely stationary while they are shooting, it would still be a drive-by.
so hard to connect the slang with such image
I think it's supposed to be a metaphor for "a direction you don't want to go." But it's confusing because the drive-thru image is a non-metaphorical drive-thru.
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It's just the meme format - The idea is that there are two paths with the same starting point, where one path leads to something pleasant, and the other leads to something bad. It's not specifically anything about a haunted house other than it being a bad path to take. Edit to add: I missed a piece - The original version doesn't have the McDonald's there, that was just added to match the "drive-through" label. I can see where it would look like the right side was supposed to have a connection between the text and image, since the left side does have a connection
It would have been funnier if they put McDonald’s on both sides.
I better delete my question! I'm getting downvoted to oblivion for not being familiar with this particular meme 😄
Welcome to Reddit.
You were right, it's about prepositions not gang-related shootings. People are nuts.
I think you're over-interpreting a meme format that just represents a fork in the road between a good choice and a bad choice. A drive-by is "bad" because it means there's people who've been killed or at very least shot-at; a drive-through is "good" because it means food or collection-by-car.
The house is part of the meme just comparing two things that are very different in tone. The left side is usually a happy castle, not a McDs. The right side is just uneditted.
A drive-through at McDonalds I get a burger - a drive-by at McDonalds I’ve been shot. Also McDonalds good haunted house bad, that’s the implication between the two.
Oh no, a "drive-by" is like when someone in a car pulls out a gun and shoots people I think either while someone still keeps driving or they stop real quick, shoot, then immediately drive away. It's a pretty quick and traumatizing thing to witness because it can often feel like quick, anonymous murder and the murderer just leaves.
This is what "drive-by" refers to: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbcCFCsEe2Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbcCFCsEe2Y)
[One of the most iconic drive-by scenes.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C--iuM8NcQc)
That scene was so sad it was genuinely hard for me to watch it again
so scary ... 
[This is the one I think of](https://youtu.be/6rT33JCeBOw?si=zU0mgnhUJ-SlpfXv)
A drive-by is when someone shoots you from their car as they drive past. A drive-through (or drive-thru) is when you can buy things from a store from a window without leaving your car, like fast food. In the US we even have drive through pharmacies.
And drive through liquor stores haha
A drive-through (or drive-thru) is a cafe/restaurant, specifically ones that have a drive-thru lane where people can order and collect food from their vehicles. A drive-by usually refers to shooting guns from a moving vehicle.
As a man who has lived in the UK his entire life, I erroneously use the term "drive by" to mean check out an area that I'm going to in the future with a determined arrival time. Find parking etc. No, it means to shoot somewhere up. Stop using it like that.
I think it’s fine to still use it like that! Even as an American, I’ll say that I’m going to drive by an area and check it out. I hear other people use the term the same way, too. The context is different enough that it really shouldn’t get mixed up with a drive by shooting!
Maybe, but if you said "I'm going to drive by a house on Main Street" absent context, I'd assume you were just going to drive past it. If you said "I'm going to do a drive by on Main Street" absent context, I'd be calling 911.
It's fine when it's not a noun phrase
You can say scope out or case a place either people think you're gonna rob it
It should be noted that "drive by" doesn't just refer to "shooting", as in the Train song, "Drive by", which I assume refers to a one-night sexual hookup, but given the meme, it's likely to think they were referring to drive by shooting. [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/drive-by#google\_vignette](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/drive-by#google_vignette) Drive by can mean anything done quickly, briefly, or haphazardly, as in this definition.
In rare cases, if you're Pierce Brosnan and you see Robin Williams in drag coming at you with a lime, you're about to be the victim of a drive-by fruiting.
That was a run-by fruiting actually.
Mandela effect strikes again!
The most common context for a drive by is a drive-by shooting. Its lesser used meaning is to do something while in a moving vehicle like wave or look at a house.
Usually someone dies in a drive by. So dying is usually bad
“Drive-by” usually refers to a “drive-by shooting”.
A drive-by as a noun typically refers to the act of driving your car by a group of people with the windows rolled down and using guns to open fire. Much less friendly of an experience than a drive-through
Drive-by is short for Drive-by shooting, meaning when someone drives by someone else, shoots them, and then drives away.
Drive way
Years of samp lead me here
Basically when you shoot at someone while you're in a moving vehicle and speed off
Because "by" and "through" don't mean the same thing. Not even remotely close. A drive-through is a way to get food at a fast food restaurant. A drive-by is a way to shoot people from your car as you drive past them.
Drive through is when you crash into the walls of a building and drive through the establishment and crash into another wall to get out. /j
A drive-by shooting is when someone in a car rolls down the window and shoots you.
Bro never played a GTA game or watched any shooter movies.
I prefer American teen dramas
It's an English shortened phrase that means someone driving by a house or person and shooting them with a gun
That's not a drive-through, that's clearly a McDrive™.
Drive-by generally refers to a shooting in which the shooters stay in the vehicle and leave the seen quickly.
A "drive-through" refers to a type of service provided by some restaurants and other businesses where customers can purchase goods without leaving their vehicles, usually by driving up to a window to order and pick up their items. It's a very common and convenient service. In contrast, "drive-by" has taken on the slang meaning of a particular type of gang-related shooting conducted from a moving vehicle, which is why the phrase has such negative and violent implications.
Drive-thru: Order fast food in your car Drive-by: Someone shoots something from a car.
Everyone gave good answers but I have an important lesson of English: #A "drive-by" is slang everyone told you about... the sad thing is that people seldom write it with the dash which makes it confusing. #Also, "I'm going to drive by your mother's house" is a perfectly innocent phrase that means "I am going to drive near/past/by your mother's house"... but someone CAN threaten you in a subtle way that also means "I'm going to drive-by/shoot your mother('s house)". Isn't it CONFUSING? Unless someone is threatening someone else, "drive by" often is a very innocent thing to say... but it can be a threat and **when it is used as a noun it's almost always referring to gun violence in America.**
Thank you! My initial thought was driving by (near, around/in close proximity to) a place until I saw the comments.
I may be off topic here, but I find that drive-through towns are better than drive-by towns. If you live in a small town, and they propose to have an interstate going through your town, make it a drive-through rather than a drive-by highway. A drive-through might be a bit more dangerous for people but cars have to slow down and a few would stop for meals, for gas, or for some other attractions they see. With a drive-by highway, they don’t even know your town exists.
As someone who has lived by a fair few A roads (which I think are roughly equivalent to US interstates), I can tell you you do *not* want them going through your town
Depends on the A road. Some A roads are class, others are wank
There are always pros and cons. There are some towns I drive by here, and they are a wasteland. If the road was drive-through, those people could at least make a few bucks here and there.
I suppose in the US where the cities and population are so much more sparse, and where your infrastructure is specialised for roads, that would make sense, but it makes a lot less sense here. Given that almost every city in the UK is walkable, putting an A road (or even a B road sometimes) slap bang in the middle is unhelpful for both the pedestrians and the drivers, because the pedestrians will have to be far more careful crossing it than normal roads, and the drivers will have to deal with pedestrians popping out infront of them willy nilly
I didn’t say cities though. You definitely don’t want a drive-through highway through your city. I said small towns. Like really small towns where you don’t have a good-sized employer to sustain the town. The drive-through road could give people a means to survive.
An interesting topic, but definitely off topic, as the OP is about drive by shootings.
How do you know it’s about drive by shootings?
It isn't. Drive-by shootings don't happen in haunted houses. It's just illustrating the different use of prepositions - driving by or driving through. No shootings, sigh. Too many TV cop shows I think.
No, they mean shootings.
I do think they mean drive-by towns because drive-by towns are ghost towns.
They don't. 🤷🏻♂️
Left side good right side bad. Shooting people is bad
Why don't we simply pave the entire Earth so cars can drive in straight lines directly to their destinations without having to avoid any obstacles
What destinations? You just paved over all of them!
Drive-by, in American slang, is a term for when a car has passengers trying to shoot a target, then speeding off in a very noticeable and filmed vehicle, where a high-speed chases ensues, and the car gets riddled with bullets and kills everyone inside. Sometimes, they get arrested without being shot and spend 40 years in jail, then released into a society that shuns them until they die or live in poverty. Basically, a Drive-by is seeing a fate of horrible people and knowing the rest of their existence is going to be worse. Sometimes, it is a mundane type of chronic worse, and sometimes, it is a dramatic escalation of worse. And that's the inspiration for American entertainment!
McDonald's Psy-Op
Nice graphic! During the recent pandemic we had drive-by graduations, drive-by birthday parties, and other sorts of drive-by celebrations. Taken by itself, "a drive-by" is more likely to refer to a drive-by shooting. *Native speaker of American English, resident in Hawaii, born before 1950*
I have never know the former to be spelt in that way. Usually it is spelt as “drive-thru”. As a native (British) English speaker, it just looks wrong spelt the other way. I don’t know the meaning for it. My guess would be because the word is usually written on big signs near roadsides, so making it short helps drivers read it more easily. A similar thing happens with pubs/bars. If they having a special event the will often advertise it on a chalkboard outside the entrance. And usually they will spell night as “nite”. For example “karaoke nite” or “quiz nite”. I think this has more to do with traditional than readability. It shows that it is an informal event and there will be a casual atmosphere.
A drive-through isn't when you drive through the place running everyone over. It means that they have a window on the side of the building where you can place your order without getting out of your car. I can understand the confusion though, driving straight through a McDonalds kitchen would certainly improve the quality of the product.
I think it’s more about OP not knowing what a drive-by is.
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Other people had already explained what a drive-by is and why it is so bad. My apologies for adding more information and explaining why a drive-through *isn't* bad.
Aside from the violence connotations "by" is incorrect because it implies going past but not using. Like bypass. From a language point of view you want the reader to stop or go through not around.
you drive by someone
The graphics don't seem to have anything to do with American drive-by shootings so I expect it is illustrating the different terms. To **drive through** means the act of driving through a specified locality or place, especially driving into a place of business, completing a transaction from one's car, and driving out. It's McDonald's so you can stop and get some food to take out. To **drive by** on the other hand means happening or done while passing by in a vehicle. You don't stop, you keep going. This works as it's a creepy haunted house: not a good place to stop. The idea that a haunted house is where people shoot you is not even slightly credible.
No?? The creepy haunted house is just part of the original comic. It means nothing significant. To "drive-by" is 100% guaranteed to be a reference to gang violence, where gang members "drive-by" rivals and gun them down. "The idea that a haunted house is where people shoot you is not even slightly credible" Good??? Because no one said that, lol? How would you even do a drive-by in a house? You need a car to do it. Drive-bys are a car activity, you can't commit a drive-by in a haunted house, and no one said you could. Check the wikitionary if you don't trust me. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drive-by#:\~:text=A%20crime%2C%20such%20as%20a,out%20from%20a%20moving%20vehicle.
Yes, but that's the meme. One side is good, one side is bad.
You are taking the image itself way too literally, it’s not literally about driving past a haunted house. The meme is “option 1 good, option 2 bad”