La Plata County resident Vince Rozmiarek believes his purpose lies in making people laugh. His avenue to fulfilling that purpose? Displaying daily puns on a homemade sign near Vallecito.
The sign, which measures 7 feet by 4 feet, can be found on County Road 501 about 3 miles south of Vallecito Reservoir.
Some of Rozmiarek’s recent puns include: “The bee got married because it found its honey,” “People are shocked I have a police record, but I just like their music,” and “The Frenchman mauled by a lion was Claude.”
“I just love to make people smile,” he said. “Everybody’s always grinding their teeth about the news. I try to do something – maybe it’s a 30‑second distraction. They get halfway up the road, and I give them a smile. Well, that’s worth it. Mission accomplished.”
Rozmiarek’s pun career began in 2015 while volunteering at the Indian Hills Community Center in Indian Hills.
He was tasked with building a roadside sign with interchangeable letters for the community center. It was meant to post wedding and event announcements, but what began as dry, informational postings quickly turned into humorous puns and jokes.
His first joke sign at the community center went up on April Fools’ Day in 2015.
A popular speed trap on U.S. Highway 285 in Morrison was the inspiration for the sign, which read, “Indian Hills annexed by Morrison: Slow down.”
Rozmiarek recalls the prank working on several residents, passersby and even the fire department, and the rest was history.
“By seven o’clock, my phone started ringing,” he said. “Morrison called me, and the fire department called me. It was a big hit.”
He began putting jokes and puns on the community center’s sign regularly from then on, and has continued the tradition daily since moving to La Plata County in 2022.
Rozmiarek, 63, estimates he owns about 300 plastic letters for use on the sign, which is constructed from wood and particle board and painted with all‑weather paint.
Most of the feedback he receives is positive – but not all of it, he said.
“I put up a sign that said, ‘Old McDonald has OCD: E-E-I-I-O,’” he said. “Somebody put up a note … saying I’ve decided to mock people with disabilities. … And I’m like, ‘OCD, really? I’ve got OCD. Can’t you see how well these letters are squared up?’”
He recalls a resident once complaining that the sign was distracting drivers. But Rozmiarek believes it makes drivers slow down and increases safety on County Road 501.
“I’m like, ‘Well, let’s call the county and have them remove all the street signs then,’” he said. “The sign slows people down. … For the most part, people love it.”
Rozmiarek’s notoriety began to climb in Indian Hills, with the original Facebook page advertising his community center sign touting over 300,000 followers, he said.
His current Facebook page, which is run by his wife of 34 years, Kirsten, had 155,000 followers as of mid-April.
“I started posting, and the next thing you know 9 News in Denver’s coming up,” he said. “Then it went all over the world, and then I interviewed with NPR. … And that’s how it got famous.”
His most enduring rule after a decade-plus as a pun expert? Keep politics off the sign.
“I have a lot of followers on both sides of the aisle, and there’s a lot of things ticking off both sides of the aisle right now,” he said. “I’ve never really let my true colors come out on the sign, because … it’s the one refuge for some people that we don’t agree with. They still have that laugh, and we have that connection.”
Rozmiarek’s family members are fans of his pun escapades, he said. He has three grown children, several siblings and extended family members who enjoy his work.
“(My siblings) love my sign,” he said. “And when I go to family events, I’m the cousin Vinny that has the sign. Everybody loves their cousin Vinny. The family’s really proud of it.”
After more than a decade of daily puns, the inspiration well occasionally runs dry, he said – which is where his fans come in.
He collaborates with several enthusiastic fans and community members who send him ideas frequently.
“(I want to keep doing this) for as long as I can, or if I’ve just put everything imaginable that can be written on a sign, I’ll stop,” he said. “But I don’t think I’ll ever get to that point, especially with people sending me stuff.”
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The most impactful moment his sign career has fostered involved a man with a terminal illness living in Conifer, he said.
“They came out and they called me and they said, ‘He’s maybe got three days to live: Can you put something on the sign for him?’” he said. “So I just put a, ‘Hey Barry, we love you here in Indian Hills.’ And he died a couple days later. … I was able to touch this guy right before he died, and that really touched me.”
Rozmiarek has experienced several near-death experiences in his life, including his heart stopping as an infant and an accident with a forklift that nearly killed him and cut off a portion of one finger. He has also had extensive treatments for brain abnormalities, he said. Those experiences have only inspired him more in his mission to bring levity and a laugh to those who pass his sign.
“I was born premature. Died at birth. … They baptized me three times. … And then I think about this forklift that should have killed me,” he said. “Well, I guess I’m here for a purpose, and if that purpose is putting a smile on somebody’s face, then that’s what I’m going to keep doing.”
The sign brings joy to Rozmiarek as well as his fans, he said, and acts as an important form of routine.
“Structure is good,” he said. “Having something to do is a good thing, and it’s something that my wife and I do together. … I like reading (funny things) to get material, because it puts me in a good frame of mind. I’m always laughing.”
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