I spotted and shot this Camry the other day. I hate to say it, but cars with lots of bumper stickers on the back are become as rare as lots of old cars (not Camrys, though). Are bumper stickers passé?
Got any favorites you want to share?
This one is mine, as it pretty much started a whole huge genre of parody bumper stickers.
Like these, and so many more.
No picture but I laughed when I saw “Boycott Japanese Goods” on the back of a Corolla.
Being a web programmer, I have one on my Grand Cherokee that says “There’s no place like 127.0.0.1.” Its definitely a nerd joke.
“There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don’t.”
If that’s not on a bumper sticker it should be. Actually I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it on a bumper sticker before.
Only DEAD people understand hex.
That is, 57005 people
Star Trek designation for Earth? (home)
It’s a special IP address designating “localhost”, that is, your own computer. Which, if you’re a TCP/IP packet, is “home” in a manner of speaking.
A coworker autocrosses a Honda-powered Mini with a sticker on the rear that reads, “Actual size.”
I’m fickle about stickers. Toolboxes and camper trailers are fair game but not cars.
Anyway this is a favourite…
I don’t know if this counts as a bumper “sticker” per se, but I had a Darwin fish on my previous car, which of course is a parody of the Jesus fish that were once ubiquitous. The Jesus fish spawned many parodies, in addition to Darwin there was a gefilte fish one, Flying Spaghetti Monster, and probably others.
One that made me laugh out loud in Chicago once. It was the classic Christ symbol, which usually is either empty or with “JESUS” inside. Well, this one just said “FISH”, which was a joke on “Gefilte fish”, Yiddish for “stuffed fish”, a classic Eastern European Jewish dish. Is that the one you mention, WildaBeast, or it said “gefilte” inside?
The one I was thinking of said “gefilte” inside, written in a font meant to resemble Hebrew text, as well as a little Star of David.
I was a big fan of this corporation as a kid and teenager in the 70s and 80s, so I promoted their brand on the back of a couple of my cars. Nice logo as well!
I’m schizophrenic…and so am I.
My favorite. RIP.
For those not in CA, this is the parody HOV lane sticker on my Fit.
One that has stayed with me since I saw it on a 70s era van when I had my first paper route at age 11, more than 40 years ago now, was “gas, grass, or ass, nobody rides for free.”
I remember that one. The response to the stoner/hippie driver was “which one does your mom give you”?
I saw this one a couple of weeks ago. Took me a while to get it:
Still trying to get the picture to load.
Still trying …
I have long said that my favorite pair of cars would be a Ford or Dodge Ram pickup with left wing bumper stickers and a Subaru or Volvo with right wing bumper stickers. Just to mess with stereotypes.
Well, I found one of them.
Here you go!
JPC and Ed, I think these two win the day!
A few weeks ago I saw a Prius with an NRA sticker.
I recently saw a 2nd gen Prius, drive by a younger woman, plastered with NRA and 2nd amendment stickers. I’ll just leave it at that.
I’m sure I’d have no trouble finding the other one here in Eugene.
Here in Indiana we have an irony deficiency.
Indiana. Not Massachusetts.
Got to love the parodies!
Have also seen the parody: My kid just beat up your honor roll child😥😥😥
No picture, but I saw an Impreza curbside on a recent walk, with a bumper sticker that said something like “Real chicks drive sticks”. Since the Impreza is available with a stick, I peeked inside. It was an automatic (CVT?).
Parody bumper stickers are my favorite, or at the least, the bumper stickers that are self deprecating in nature because I at least know the owner has a sense of humor.
Back in the days of the 55 mph speed limit, these were seen around.
Oh, here’s one I shot through the windshield a few years ago. Edit: I guess there are two stickers, but one is more unusual.
Oh man, that sucks…
I have seen this on the back of a few Toyota Prius: “Sweet Prius!” -Nobody
I like the 0.0 mile stickers
I sport a black ribbon magnet saying “Some a**hole stole my support magnet” and my wife has WWTSD? What Would The Stig Do? on her BMW
I colleague of mine has one of those stickers on his Prius. Needless to say, he has a good sense of humor.
The Official Security Patrol of Curbside Classic:
Classic American good taste:
I use this one on my Ranger & Astro, with the trailer hitch installed as well:
In the same vein:
“If you’re going to ride my ass, at least hold my hair”
I use this one too, b/c I drive at MINIMUM the speed limit (when the weather is favorable); I’m NOT slow according to the law:
“I’m not driving fast, I’m flying low.”
” EARTH FIRST,we can strip mine the other planets later”
Here’s some good advice for anyone who wants to reuse the same sticker on a different vehicle, possibly b/c of getting rid of their previous vehicle due to unavoidable circumstances: get MAGNETIC bumper stickers–adhesive ones aren’t so easy to remove once applied. And they’re less likely to fade from sunlight too!
Not a bad idea, but in my case the problem would be finding a steel surface on the back of either of my daily drivers to stick the magnet to!
I had the rainbow splat on my car in high school, and it literally dissaponted my father to no end; he had the mentality that I should harbor some sort of discretion in my life because it was a poor reflection on him (which is so backwards; you taught me to hold your head high, and own your mistakes. Being emotionally drawn to a man is not a mistake). The equality sticker came out, and made him realize two things. The first was other people are very proud of their kids, regardless where their love is found, and that he not need to feel shame because he loves me. I get the most innapropriate birthday cards from him to this day, and I’m ok with it. That “support” changed his mind, and our lives for the better, as a result.
great story… I don’t like stickers on my car, but if I had one, it would be the equality one.
I too have an equality sticker on my car. As did my husband whe we had two cars :).
Nice writeup and I like the sticker.
I have a few on the back of my van, none on the car. Mostly the local sports teams and a Planet Fitness sticker. I really don’t know what to say to the rest of world. Kind of like tattoos, only bumper stickers are less permanent. On my red Yugo I used to have a bumper sticker that read “Why be Normal” applied upside down.
Here’s one I saw recently that I thought was pretty good. This was at a 5K fun run, too…
I hope this one shows well. It’s from a car show about 10 years ago, and I only had a potato phone to take this photo. It was on the back of a rusty 4×4 pick up truck…
Not a bumper sticker, and not my actual pic, but I saw one of these some time ago in Dallas, which was perfect.
I had a “Support Pimpin” ribbon on the back of my 84 deVille, next to a Cartman “Respect My Authoritah” sticker and an Opie & Anthony WOW 102.7 WNEW sticker.
Sadly I can’t find the Support Pimpin sticker anymore for the ‘91 deVille…
“I childproofed my house but they keep getting in”
“If God didn’t intend for man to eat animals, he shouldn’t have made them out of meat”
“My wife was peddling her ass around town. I took her bicycle away”
“I miss Johnny Cash”
The only thing I have on my truck is an AU Dad sticker, My former law partner used to drive a Hummer H1 with a bumper sticker promoting biofuel.
There’s a lot of Jeep Wranglers around here (western NC) with stickers that are applied upside down and say “If you can read this . . . Roll me over.”
But my all-time favorite was a sticker on the back of a Honda Element which said “Hummer H.5”
Had this one on my ’66 VW Bus for a while, back in the day.
i don’t put stickers on my car because I like it too much, but here’s a sticker that i enjoy.
OK, file didn’t save for some reason. Try 2:
edit: attachment still didn’t save. just imagine the coolest sticker you’ve ever seen, x2.
“Ted Kennedy’s car killed more people than my gun”
“God 1st, You 2nd, Me 3rd”
“Are bumper stickers passé?”
yes.
Boomers need to get it through their damn heads that things aren’t going to be the same as they were between 1960-1973.
You should put that on a bumper sticker.
These are among my favorites
I had one back in the eighties that I really liked:
The day my ship comes in I’ll probably be at the airport.
No explanation needed
It’s 1979 again!
One I saw years ago that made me laugh said:
“Give Opera a Chance”
This one is distinctly un Canadian, (except for the flag) but here goes.
That’s really funny, though it reminds me of my pet peeve: profanity on bumper stickers.
An oldie but a goodie
Created by R. Crumb. Does anyone know what ” Keep on Truckin’ ” is supposed to actually mean?
It means Keep on Truckin’… Truckin’ your blues away. (copyright R. Crumb).
Crumb was offered $100,000 by Toyota to reproduce the image for a Keep On Truckin’ advertising campaign, but turned it down.
I’ve seen many bumpers stickers I like but have never attached any to a vehicle I’ve owned. Here’s one that I’d like to put on the mirrors of the two cars I owned
I think I lifted this one from an early CC post or comment thread…
I saw one on the back of a pickup truck recently that said “Don’t believe everything you think!”
Bumper sticker on the back of a 70 Cutlass Supreme Coupe I once owned.
“Save a tree, eat a beaver”
Was on there when I bought it. I did replace the bumper as part of my amateur restoration so it wasn’t there for long under my ownership. Not very appropriate but whenever I think of that car I remember it. Lol.
Strange combination on a Mitsubishi pickup in the 80s:
License frame “Pear Harbor Survivor”
Bumper Sticker “I Love My Mitsubishi”
I didn’t get a look at the driver, maybe he was Japanese?
Didn`t Mitsubishi build he Japanese fighter ‘Zero’ in WW II?
Yes they did:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_A6M_Zero
Mitsubishi also made the specially modified Type 91 torpedoes that sank the West Virginia, Oklahoma and California.
The chilling irony is where they were made: Nagasaki – the Karmic circle completed itself, didn’t it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_91_torpedo#Production_sites
Two of my favorites
‘Warning! I brake Hard for Tailgaters’
‘Put Down the @#$%&*? and Drive’
And one I saw on a ‘new’ VW Beetle-with a man driving .
‘It`s the Wife`s Car, My Corvette`s in the Shop Today.
Seen on a minivan a few years ago: “Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?”
“Tits on a Ritz; Mmm…good cracker!” (you have to remember the old Andy Griffith tv commercial to get that one)
And from the hippie days:
“Bad cop! No donut!”
This one actually scared me……”I am a bitch, and so is my Mom.”. Who puts that on a car?
All my favorites are ones I’ve actually used:
“I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own”
“I <3 My Haters"
"Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company" – Mark Twain
"Chaotic Neutral – BECAUSE I CAN"
I imagine if I get a wagon in my next car purchase I'll have to have a "WAGON MAFIA" sticker.
One on my car decades ago;
“Insanity is hereditary
you get it from your kids”
on unknown vehicle
“OHTV
OFFICIAL HARP TRANSPORT VEHICLE”
I cannot ignore this one . . .
My favorites:
“Hungry? Eat your import!” – on the back bumper of a late 1970s Fiat.
“Clean Air? What a great idea!” – on the back bumper of a battered 1980s Isuzu that was burning copious amounts of oil.
I don’t like bumper stickers on my own cars, or license plate frames either for that matter, but right after I bought my 2016 Civic to become my new daily driver, I put this licence plate frame on my retired DD, now my pleasure (and back up) car. It was on the car until I got my shiny new Maryland Pride plates at the next tag renewal, and subsequently removed. At the time I thought it was funny, anyway…
When I had my old Suburban, many people used to say how it was a big gas guzzler or terrible for the environment (it actually was not bad on fuel, better than many pickups of the time). So I always wanted to get a bumper sticker that said “My other car is a Prius” because my wife actually did own one near the end of my “Burb’s” ownership. I figured that would have generated some interesting comments…
My favorite one that I saw somewhere says in big block letters: “I hate bumper stickers!”
I once made a funny sticker for one of my cars. I took a sticker that said “Student Driver” and cut out the section in the middle with the letters “D” and “E”, then spliced the two pieces together, so that it said “Stunt Driver”. Very few people noticed the gag, though, most just thought I was either an actual student driver or gave driving lessons.
“If you lived here you’d be home by now”…
Waaaay back in the day, I had a TR4 with a cut up Goldwater sticker that said, “DOGWATER ’64”
I still remember one on a car I was behind years ago. On Geary St right after it splits before Franklin St.
BE ALERT
WE NEED MORE LERTS
I found modern versions but they ruin the joke with
BE ALERT
THE WORLD NEEDS MORE LERTS
Just not as good joke writing. Remember: Three is funny (third choice is punch line), round is funny, and the letter K is funny.
That Subaru owner probably blows his gasket more than his engine does.
I saw a car with a Wottamatta University sticker. That’s Bullwinkle’s Alma mater.
In Hawaii those opposed to development in rural areas sport distinctive green stickers :
So, naturally the response:
Other faves:
I KNIT so I don’t KILL
Spinning: Because Knitting isn’t BORING enough
Jesus is Coming: Look Busy
Jesus Saves….Green Stamps!!!
I bought one of those 20 years ago and I had the opportunity to put it on several clunkers I have owned ever since.
Never did…
I still have the sticker.
I work in an ER, and several of my coworkers have this on their car (“I narcanned your honor student”, in case my image doesn’t attach)
I should explain, Narcan is what we give people to reverse an opioid overdose….
I keep seeing these on minivans lately
Daan,
That’s a funny one. I would want one, but Im not a fan of putting stickers on my cars. Plus, I have been consistently uncool since forever.
My first comment after reading this site for years. Back in 2006 I frequently received a lot of flak from coworkers regarding my daily driver ’88 Cutlass Ciera. I had a better car but chose to rack up the miles on the Olds as long as it continued to run well. One evening after going out with a group from work I found this on my trunk. The handiwork of a coworker who had access to a label printer. It’s on magnetic label stock. I may still have the sticker somewhere. I sold the car for parts in 2008 with 202K on the odometer.
There was a sticker common in the 50s-60s, “MADE IN DETROIT BY IDIOTS” (which I saw in the glove compartment of a ’58 Edsel in a CC post). But I don’t like that one because it denigrates the hard and honest labor of assembly line workers. Just because people do repetitive, semi-skilled labor doesn’t make them “idiots”.
If a car is inherently bad, I would blame poor design engineering or “bean counter” cost-cutting, which comes from the top–those would be “the idiots”. The line workers always seem to get the bad rap for poor quality. A bad design will be a bad design, no matter how well it is assembled.