Protecting the Public From Double Entendre

Jacob Sullum | August 15, 2006

The Hooters billboard on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in Clearwater, Florida, used to say, "Liquor in Clearwater, Poker in Vegas." Then Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard made a phone call to Ed Droste, co-founder of the restaurant chain. Now the billboard says, "Liquor in Clearwater, Casino in Vegas." Hibbard concedes the original version broke no law, but he thought it was inappropriate. "The first time I read it," he told the St. Petersburg Times, "it went over my head, and then I got it....I thought, 'That's not good.'" The first time I read it, I didn't get it either. I didn't realize Hooters had a casino in Las Vegas.

Comments

The Wine Commonsewer|8.15.06 @ 5:14PM|#

Let me say this about that. The Hooters girls at the Norco branch don't look much like the Hooters girls on the casino web page. Not many would consider Liquor or Poker in Norco.

As for the billboard? I'da laughed, my kids wouldn't have got it, it's a little cheesy, the mayor made a request, Hooter's said sure, we'll change it.

Maybe that's political arm twisting and Hooters has a review of the conditional use permit coming up. Or maybe, it's just a little private request and some public goodwill.

|8.15.06 @ 5:23PM|#

Ugh, i still dont get it. Are liquor and poker supposed to be 'play-on-phoenetics' for lick-her and poke-her? Thats the only double entendres I can think of. What do clearwater or vegas have to do with it? Some one please explain it to me...yes yes I know it wont be funny if you do.

|8.15.06 @ 5:25PM|#

Does this have anything to do with the overwhelming presence of members of a certain "church" in Clearwater?

|8.15.06 @ 5:29PM|#

Val, yes, that's it. I first heard this in college when a frat had shirts saying "liquor in the front, poker in the back", advertising a party.

|8.15.06 @ 5:30PM|#

Obviously the billboard is causing the mayor's inner Thetan all sorts of grief.

|8.15.06 @ 5:34PM|#

You got the double entendres, val.

There is an old joke floating around:
A bar has an advertising slogan:
Liquor in front, poker in the rear.
(Describing the layout of the joint, of course.)

|8.15.06 @ 5:42PM|#

What first Amendment?

|8.15.06 @ 5:57PM|#

I guess the Mayor threatened to issue an SP Declare on the Hooters guy.

|8.15.06 @ 6:07PM|#

Tits and ass + nipples and upper thighs are OK. Liquor and poker are not OK. Any problems? It's apparently the single entendre that eludes our understanding.

|8.15.06 @ 6:23PM|#

I just had thought:

Fark.com has given Florida it's very own nooze tag because so much goofy nooze comes out of there.

I wonder how much of that can be attributed to Clearwater?

|8.15.06 @ 7:03PM|#

The mexican restaurant variation is:
Liquor in the front
Tacos in the middle
Poker in the rear

And the waitresses wear shirts that say something like "You'll love the taste of our tacos"

|8.15.06 @ 7:04PM|#

Sorry, lazy with capitalization...
Mexican, not mexican.

|8.15.06 @ 8:54PM|#

Mark V:
I live in the town that contains the bar that originated the slogan, "Liquor Up Front, Poker in the Rear."
The town is Missoula, MT, and the bar is Stockman's on Front Street. They used to sell T-shirts in Playboy with a little 1-inch ad in the back.
In Montana, those are two things we take seriously: Liquor and poker.

|8.15.06 @ 9:46PM|#

The Bay Area is internationally famous for nudity, yet all of our politicians like to get ruffled feathers when anything smacking of sex rears its ugly head. Not that Hooters really falls under the sex industry moniker, but it's the same nonsense.

|8.15.06 @ 10:05PM|#

What happens in Florida stays in Florida.
Give us senior citizens a break! Especially if we're guilty of no worse than appreciating Hooters, I mean double entendres. Yeah, those are the tickets.
(Two licket tickets, please.)

|8.15.06 @ 11:07PM|#

Poker? I don't even know her!

HA!

...

Oh come on! Somebody had to say it.

|8.15.06 @ 11:14PM|#

Does this have anything to do with the overwhelming presence of members of a certain "church" in Clearwater?

I didn't think that Scientologists were such fucking prudes.

If so... HAIL XENU!!!

Jadagul|8.16.06 @ 1:41AM|#

Thanks, Akira, now I don't have to say it.

One of the guys I worked with over the summer was fond of that one. Said it was especially good with words like "sunflower."

No, you're not missing anything.

|8.18.06 @ 5:42PM|#

Old, old joke. My spouse who grew up in Nevada 60+ years ago says they had a joke in grade school about the sighn that read "Liquor up front, Poker in the rear."

|8.19.06 @ 8:24PM|#

Oh! Now I get it! (I am a little slow).

|8.19.06 @ 8:32PM|#

"Liquor in Clearwater. CASINO in Vegas"

What does Casino stand for?
Cas In O in Vegas?
Ca Sin O in Vegas?
Ca Si No in Vegas?
Ca Sino in Vegas?
Cas Ino in Vegas?

Perhaps it just stand for Casino? OK.