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Comment by userbinator | Hacker News Reader

Inspired by the "Peeing Calvin" stickers, which as far as I know is a distinctly American phenomenon.

https://triviahappy.com/articles/the-tasteless-history-of-th...

They're very common in Belgium (Western Europe) as well, though most people who use them have no idea of the origin. They just thinks it looks rebellious.

I find those stickers extremely annoying, since they conflict with how I know and love the Calvin character.

Some of them are sort of funny, but others don't come even close (imo): peeing on speed limit signs (amount of deaths due to speeding is not laughable), peeing on the police (sure some minority migh be assholes but the majority I have met really do want to help people - and yeah they also enforce speed limits which, even though I completely understand how nice it feels to go insanely fast, are there for a reason) etc.

And my favorite from a few years back - peeing on bin Laden.

I most commonly see them on cars with aftermarket modifications (tuning cars), which is in line with your speed limit/police hatred connection.

Rebellious or a reference to Belgian culture? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis)

I never took them as such, but could be!

I think even worse are the ones that show Calvin praying to a cross. Talk about out of character…

Southern Europe (mostly around Catalonia) has a similar curiosity which has after 100s of years become a tradition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caganer

I wonder which cultural oddities today will be commonly accepted 100 years from now, or whether the globalization will eventually homogenize such local customs, so instead of "memes" living locally for 100s of years they get global exposure and die out within a month.

Also Brussels has the Manneken Pis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis

Catalan culture is scatologic, for Christmas they have a wood trunk that is fed and when is kick with an stick it shits gifts [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti%C3%B3_de_Nadal

I Norway truckers seem to love it... If you drive a Volvo you have a sticker that pees on Scania etc.

definitely not, in Britain they're very commonly wearing football jerseys and peeing on the oppositions jersey.

edit: I'm wrong, seems like there are a multitude of "piss on your rivals jersey" paraphernalia but it's not calvin.

"Peeing Calving" stickers are way too common in India.

Meh :( They're fairly common on the rear ends of taxicabs in a few cities in India as well.

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