Nightclubs Try to Ban Cellphone Pictures. Yeah, Good Luck with That.

Better start taking your iPhone pics before you hit the club (or skipping the club entirely because clubs are for loooooosers). Many a nightclub — or a few nightclubs in New York City, anyway — have begun the practice of banning cell phone photos to cut down on distractions from the music and protect the privacy of their guests (i.e., FAMOUS PEOPLE).

Output in Williamsburg and Le Baron in Chinatown are two clubs that have adopted a “strictly enforced” no-photo policy.

From The New York Times:

The rationale behind today’s photo bans could be a desire to shield the famous; codify a pretentious air of mystery; or, in Output’s case, instill a purer, but no less innocent, party mind-set driven by, well, partying and not by retro-filtered Instagram portraits.

The NYT doesn’t say what happens if you get caught trying to take a photo of, say, Rihanna as she hangs out in VIP, but one can only speculate that it involves a complicated body switching spell that will give you a taste of the lonely-yet-constantly-invaded lives of the rich and the famous and ultimately teach you the complicated lesson of why it’s rude to take pictures of people without asking them first. (Rihanna has not occupied her own body since 2006.)

If you’re still devoted to the club selfie, fret not. You can always take pictures of yourself while drunkenly sitting on the Le Baron toilet. No one will be the wiser.