When Tony Cava got a letter from the state about somebody complaining that his personalized license plate came across as “vulgar, profane or offensive to good taste and decency,” he was, well, “pretty befuddled.”The plate on his white 1989 BMW says, “GOES211.”
A man identifying himself as Johnny Dixon wasn’t thinking “Spinal Tap” when he spotted the plate.
Last October, Dixon emailed the Department of Licensing: “I find it in poor taste that the great state of Washington would issue a plate that allows a driver to insinuate in public that his penis grows to 11 inches in length. The rest of the citizens of Washington should not be subjected to this vulgarity.”
And so the case of GOES211 ended up before something called the DOL’s Personalized License Plate Committee. Bureaucracies like committees, and lists.
State law gives the agency authority to determine what is and isn’t offensive in a personalized plate. But even if the DOL approves a plate, anyone who spots a plate on the road and takes offense can make a complaint. Then, the agency investigates.
There are plenty of terms that can offend.
The agency has compiled a list of 654 “DO NOT ISSUE” terms for vanity plates since the state began issuing them in 1975.
Using everything from Google searches that include foreign-language and slang dictionaries, to asking translators to explain what something means in Russian, the committee decides what crosses the offensive line.
Think high-school humor: GETSOM, LUVBED, JUMPME, HUMPER, INHEAT, NYMPHO, OLDFART, IRSUCKS, GONAD, WANTSEX, GSPOT, BLUBALS, ZIGZAG, GO2HELL, BITEIT, MRPOOP.
― JoeStork, Saturday, 30 July 2016 21:55 (seven years ago) link