And When They Came For Tofu Lovers, I Did Nothing Because I Was Busy Standing In Line For My Own Vanity License Plates...

Nick Gillespie | April 21, 2009

Did my grandparents and your whatevers really move here, the Greatest, Freeeeest, Braveriest Country on Earth, from Europe, Asia, Africa, Canada, or wherever to witness such travesties of soy-related free expression?:

Kelly Coffman-Lee wanted to tell the world about her fondness for bean curd by picking certain letters for her SUV's license plate.

Her suggestion for the plate: "ILVTOFU."

But the Division of Motor Vehicles blocked her plan because they thought the combination of letters could be interpreted as profane.

Says Department of Revenue spokesman Mark Couch: "We don't allow 'FU' because some people could read that as street language for sex."

Is it just me, or could "Mark Couch" be read as street language for some sort of sex act?

Grim details (about the license plate, not the couch) here.

More adventures in government descriptions of "street language" here (Drug Czar Edition).

Reason.com on vanity plates (thy name is) here.

And yes, this is one more sign that the terrorists have won.

Comments

|4.21.09 @ 7:54AM|#

I understand that bureaucrats have to be humorless, but doesn't the fact that the license plate works on both levels add to the brilliance and therefore an exception should be allowed?

BakedPenguin|4.21.09 @ 7:55AM|#

They still can't beat Florida.

I used to have a pretty cool Fla. plate too. The first three digits were "I69"

BakedPenguin|4.21.09 @ 8:01AM|#

NY Plate. Not sure if that's Photoshopped.

Also: more here.

ed|4.21.09 @ 8:24AM|#

An acquaintance of mine from Montana named Ray purchased this vanity plate: RAYTARD
A road cop pulled him over for a minor infraction and took the opportunity to chastise him for his insensitivity. Retorted Ray: "Would you prefer that I change it to DISRAYBLED?"

|4.21.09 @ 8:45AM|#

Congrats Nick, your "mark couch" link tripped the company porn alert. I expect this sort of thing from Naga Sadow, but you? you too, Brutus?

TofuSushi returns for just thi|4.21.09 @ 8:51AM|#

I am offended.

Xeones|4.21.09 @ 8:52AM|#

Yo, FU Mark Couch.

I saw a Virginia plate once that said "TIH5 HO," which doesn't make a lot of sense until you see it in the rearview mirror.

|4.21.09 @ 8:55AM|#

Just get a 58008 plate and hang it upside down.

ToFUsushi returns for just thi|4.21.09 @ 8:57AM|#

My bad, reformatted handle.

|4.21.09 @ 9:23AM|#

In the words of an pre-internet meme, this is Sofa king we todd did.

|4.21.09 @ 9:23AM|#

SugarFree,

Actually, 58008 is even more brilliant right side up. The person behind you won't get it, but the person in front of you looking in their rear view mirror will love it.

|4.21.09 @ 9:26AM|#

Maybe rightside up on the front and upside down on the back. Like a mullet.

Your Favorite Queer|4.21.09 @ 9:34AM|#

I tried to get a MN plate that read "QUEER" but the woman at the DMV hassled the shit out of me asking what it meant. I told her it's in the dictionary. Look it up.

She then said I had to pay about $200 up front just to have a committee determine if it were obscene. If it the committee determined it wasn't, I'd eventually get the plate in a few months. If they decided it was obscene, I would eventually get my $200 back. Someday.

I told her fuck you and left.

- YFQ

Kevin S.|4.21.09 @ 10:21AM|#

Sure she loves tofu. ILVTOFU = I love to fu@k you?

EJM|4.21.09 @ 11:09AM|#

What would Al Dubois do?

(reference explained here)

|4.21.09 @ 12:06PM|#

But the Division of Motor Vehicles blocked her plan because they thought the combination of letters could be interpreted as profane.

Sigh. Unless there's some meaning hidden on the third or fourth level down, the DMV isn't blocking it because it's profane ("serving to debase or defile what is holy"), but because it's vulgar. (I know, I know; the dictionary lists "OBSCENE, VULGAR" as a definition of "profane," but that just records the fact that a lot of people use the word not knowing WTF it means. (I was being vulgar there, not profane.))

|4.21.09 @ 12:08PM|#

It's a little off subject, but our local DMV has big posters on the wall warning you that it's a crime to threaten DMV employees.

It's thoughtful little touches like those that help the long hours of waiting fly by...

JB|4.21.09 @ 12:52PM|#

Is it just me, or could "Mark Couch" be read as street language for some sort of sex act?

lol! Awesome.

|4.21.09 @ 1:21PM|#

Whoa. Somebody actually go a 2GRL1CUP plate? Awesome!

The best are the ones that play off the art surrounding the plate, though, like those two Virginia plates.

jtuf|4.21.09 @ 3:50PM|#

I didn't notice the double entendre of "I LV TO F U" until I read the dmv clerk's explination. If you have to explain to the average person why the message is risque, then it's not that risque.

medic|4.21.09 @ 7:25PM|#

There was one in Va that read rkmlzup.

puzlmkr in the rear view. Gues the guy made games.