Lick my WHAT???
08/22/2008 @ 3:00 pm
Check out this photo of a vehicle that belongs to a budget rental outfit in Cairns, Australia, named Wicked Campervans, a company that seems to get a real kick out of thumbing its nose at just about everyone.
Outraged cairns.com.au reader Mark sent a photograph of the van to us after his Japanese wife spotted it parked in their Bayview Heights street while driving their eight-year-old daughter to school.
“It’s terrible. If you walked around in a T-shirt with that written on it in English, you would be arrested,” he said.
His said he and his wife had tried to stop their daughter, who can read Japanese, from seeing the van, which was parked in the street for several days before leaving overnight.
Via cairns.com.au
Wow. Haven’t been learning Japanese for all that long so it took me a few seconds to make sure I sounded out all the katakana correctly. I’m floored.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:07 pmIt is Queensland after all. Personally I hate the place, wouldn’t go back if you paid me.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:53 pmI don’t know about arrested. You might get your picture up on more than a few blogs…
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 pmriki! Details, please!
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:22 pmOutraged Mark is kind of missing the point. Why’s he talking about walking around with a t-shirt with that written on it in English? No one is. It’s written on a van in katakana. If I walked around naked with that written on my bum in whatever language, I’d be arrested, but that’s not exactly relevant to the topic either, Mark.
Kind of reminds me of the plenty of times Japanese celebs appear on national TV in shirts festooned with slogans like “F*** OFF” (without asterisks), and of course no one bats an eyelid, except about 8 foreigners who happen to be watching at the time who all say “Y-y-you can’t wear that on national TV”, and then remember where they are and forget about it.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:24 pmhaha, overoften you’re exactly right. guess all us foreigners can do is gape in amazement and store it away as a good joke for our English speaking friends later.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:27 pmAm I the only one who read that as “Lick My Kantou”?
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:39 pmIt took me a while to get what they meant.
Seems this is more about Australia than japan. Local laws should apply, though I don’t plan on ever going there so meh.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:57 pmDude, you have an AMAZING grasp of the obvious.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:13 pm“Kantou?” Kantou? That’s not how I read it, but wouldn’t it have to be “manko” to be offensive in Japanese? How many eight-year-olds who understand Nihongo know what a kantou is, anyway? But could this be the next “Nice boat’?
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:41 pm@ Edward - Don’t get me started
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 pmWell, the other side of the van should say, “サック マイ ディック！”
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 pm“It’s terrible. If you walked around in a T-shirt with that written on it in English, you would be arrested.”
Maybe in Australia, but not in a free country like the U.S.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 pmI think Cryptonic is saying he saw the reflector on the side of the fan to the right of “to” as an elongation symbol.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:14 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:58 pmthat is rude
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 amSorry Paul, but I can’t possibly imagine someone wearing something like that in English in America in a public place and not getting stopped by police. Arrested, maybe not, but stopped, most likely. Especially if someone complains. While there is freedom of speech, there are also obscenity laws. Besides, America isn’t as free as it seems.
Obviously, offense was meant by this, and not to defend the company who intended to offend others, by perusing their website, it seems they aim to offend in English and internationally with graphic images. Some just offend with bad design. At any rate, anyone who publicly complains is really just giving them free advertising.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:15 amOh man… You gotta love Australians
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:47 amSimple enough: wannabes just can’t get enough of writing nonsensical Japanese.
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:04 am