Sometimes I see things and they just annoy the hell out of me. When I was in Germany last month I saw for the first time this very popular “Boys are stupid…throw rocks at them!” merchandise. Girls were walking around in those t-shirts, having a key chain with similar dim messages dangling from their pants. A huge smile of “I am so above you!” gleaming on their faces. Are you thinking? And if you are, I would get my neuro-transmitters checked!
Not only is this offensive to boys, imagine the message would target the other gender! A boy running along in a t-shirt stating: “Girls are air-headed … give them a bag to hyperventilate or cover their head!” the world would be in uproar.
Even worse, this particular message makes girl seem silly. Just because boys are stupid (and we all know they can be at times), we’ll resort to throw rocks at them? How childish is that? Beam me right back to kinder garden, Scotty! Aren’t we supposed to be climbing up the ladder of intelligence, not plunge down it?
Last but not least, I -as a woman-certainly don’t feel more empowered by putting down the other gender! Picking on someone else to make yourself feel upgraded is so last year….or the year before that.
And I am not blaming those easy-to-impress teenage girls, we all can journey back and remember our own foolishness at times, but these “lines” were designed by, dare I say it, people past their 30’s.
Grow up, will ye?
Where silliness is concerned Iceland is never far behind …here is the latest, most stupid thing I saw here, just a few days ago!
Fresh Mountain Air. There are no words, so I’ll let the backside of this can speak for itself!
Fresh Mountain Air in a can…sold to tourists! I realize that a while ago people thought bottled water wouldn’t make it and we have been proven wrong. But this? I am picturing a scuba diver with a line of these cans tied to him while diving. Another head image at the moment is a bunch of people in hospitals attached to these cans rather than say, oxygen masks. Neat!
Should we suggest to add flavor? How about citrus or a papaya- aloe vera blend with a hint of jasmine? We all know how good that stuff is for you…
Enough with the silliness…let’s put caned air back where it belongs: Space Balls!
~Penguin out!
If you really need to giggle though (and I hear a high level of canned oxygen can do that to you) evaporate over to HUMOR-BLOGS!
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Central Snark 
HAHAHAHAHA. well, i confess i’ve yet to see one of those “boys are stupid” t-shirts (and/or “etc.”) around here — but i’m certain it’s just a matter of time. those silly designers…
as for the “fresh mountain air”? um… forgive my own ginormous level of stupidity — but isn’t Iceland filled with it’s own air? are they expecting a shortage in the near future? you’re right, of course, this particular item screams “Space Balls”! (great movie about “stupid boys”, by the way) that said, i’m thinking if this particular “fad” catches on, the NEXT shirts we’ll see folks sporting would be “people are stupid” — something BoBo and i have suspected for a long time, at least since our days in Virginia! (sorry, but for some folks in that state, the “Civil War” has yet to end… which is why we couldn’t wait to move away from there!) d’oh! 🙄
HILARIOUS post, sweet Penguin! need i tell you how much i loveloveloved it? no, i guess you’re smart enough to figure that out on your own! 😉
Comment by One Hot Puppy Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 7:27amsnuppy, thank you! the “Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them” is an American line that has made it over to Germany 😉 Designed and manufactured by Clearwater, Fla.-based clothing company, David and Goliath. Germany is nto silly for manufacturing it, it is insanely stupid for sporting it though 🙂
And the wonderful cans of fresh Mountain air are sold to tourists in Iceland to take home with them 🙂 I saw it at a tourist shop when I went on the Gullfoss/ Geysir tour 😉
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 7:40amDoes the air come in six packs? Ow! Easy with the rocks!
Comment by Walela Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 8:05amI’d like a t-shirt that states/warns “If I like you, I may pull you ponytail.” Speaking of childish. 🙂
As for the air, I didn’t see how to attach a scuba regulator to that.
Comment by I Dive At Night Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 8:33amI think the canned air is brilliant and, like the pet rock of the ’70’s (?), I wish I had thought of it first. What about Icelandic dirt? Couldn’t we put a bit of it in a small box and sell to the masses? Think about it.
As for the shirts…looking forward to the first lawsuit associated with a rock related injury inspired by the slogan.
Comment by BoBo Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 8:34amThe canner air has given me an excellent marketing idea.
I shall pass wind into a jar, seal it, and sell it as authentic ‘Aristocrat Air’.
I shall be rich(er)!
Comment by Lord Likely Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 8:34amDoug, no amount of fresh mountian air, can help your brain refresh. Too over-loaded. Can I interest you in this rather fine and genuine Icelandic Troll-club?
Morgan, are you gonna get technical on me? I like your t-shirt idea.
Bobo, We are selling Icelandic moss in small boxes to Europe and America. What with all our vegitation all ove rthe place, we are glad to get rid of it. One of the funny things aout tourists though (in particular German ones) they tend to take a rock or two with them home. There is a joke that this island might dissapear all together in time.
Lord Likely…well, if your can comes with a stamped paper of proper lineage…I ams ure your could pass that through 🙂 (pun fully intended!)
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 9:01amI hate those t-shirts! Not ’cause I’m a guy (well maybe ALSO because I’m a guy.) sheesh…
Comment by Pavel Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 9:02amThe canned air, well, that’s funny. You just KNOW there are people dumb enough to buy it.
pavel, isn’t it frightening when you know that every product out there will have a buyer. Whatever we put out there, someone is bound to love it! Frightening!
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 9:09amsadly, i figured that “”boys are stupid” slogan was born in America. ah well… maybe the “next” big thing to hit Europe will be the slogan from Teen Girl Squad (“I have a crush on every boy”) — i could SO see someone like Paris Hilton sporting THAT one across her chest! 😉
as for the “air”, yeah, i had the feeling it was for tourists, stupid and/or otherwise (one look at the can should have told me all i needed and/or wanted to know!). Lord Likely has the right idea — tho’ i, for one, would prefer a can o’ “puppy scent” to “foppish blue-blooded flatulence”. but maybe that’s just me. 🙄
Comment by snuppy Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 9:53amI think it’s the high quality graphic design of the “Boys are stupid…” shirts that girls find appealing.
Comment by CrummyJoel Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 9:53amOh, man! I can get a troll club?
Comment by Walela Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 9:59amsnuppy, nice! I’d buy a can…does it coem with a cap?
crummy Joel, well somebody should have trust in our creative perseption, sadly it reflects bad on yoru judgement 🙂
Walela, dude…you were supposed to be offended! 🙂 See, what I told you about your brick head? It’s true! 🙂
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 10:13amI think you should bring some of those cans the next time you visit. Okay, that didn’t sound right, but you know what I meant!
I did see those insipid shirts and they were sized and marketed for the preteen set which includes my daughter. Nice. Yeah sure, great message. And dopier the parents who buy them.
I only wore silly shirts and one that I recall said “smell it like it is” and had a strawberry (scented) picture on the front. Nothing offensive.
Funny post dear Penguin.
Comment by Lampsha Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 11:27amI figure they are marketing these tees in Europe because of the very fact that lawsuits are not as easy to make happen as they are here in the US… unfortunately… because a HUGE thing we actually missed in Spain, which shocked the hell out of us, were lawsuits as they would have most certainly imporved living conditions due to the fear it puts in business and store owners over being sued in the first place thus creating safer situations for the consumer and children… and conditions are not safe for kids in Spain though northern Europe is a different story… I have just woken up and am sounding like a damn infomercial for god knows what so…
oy! 😉
When I was in the thrid grade, a boy I liked actually threw stones at me. Well, he meant to hit this other girl and accidentally hit me. He liked me too and often insisted that I play kiss catch… something no one ever got me to do as I was too proud to be that easy… yeah, I really thought along those lines back then… so he hit me by mistake but my stubborn third grader’s pride was so angered by this that I never spoke to him again… I hear it affected him so much that he ended up seeing a shrink! Ooops! So now you know why boys dare not throw stones at girls! And as for the tees… dios mio!
CANNED AIR? Oy! Is this where I bury the Icelandic part of my head DEEEEEEEEP in shame? Oy…
Faboo and funny post hermana mia! And enough of my sleepy and utterly nonsical yammering… before you shoot me, off I go…
BoheMia OUT!
Comment by Catty Yummy Mummy Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 11:31amPS- (yeah, she is back already!)… in Spain the morons market “69” and “sex” tees with pictures of Minnie Mouse on them and the non-English largely uneducated part of the populace buys them for their kids… it was terribly disconcerting to see little 4 year-olds running around with that shit on their shirts! There are, sadly, plenty of morons out there!
Comment by Catty Yummy Mummy Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 11:34amsome of those shirts David and Goliath makes are somewhat funny to me but as the mom of two boys, I don’t really approve of that one in particular.
Comment by logo™ Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 1:04pmCan I sell my skull as California adobe?
Comment by Walela Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 1:48pmLampshade: One of my favourite shirts is “Silicon Free” right above my breast area…it’s a statement and one I ma willign to defend. There are silly shirts that are innocent and there there is plain rude! Thank you!
CYM, too true…it is the innocent people not gettign connotations that end up buying stuff they never intended for there children. Mickey Mouse and 69 simply does not belong together, maybe a special order fro teh “Playboy Mansion” would be alright though! A very adult man threw once a rock, not aim to hit, but startle me…that terrified me and I had to let him go. He is still apologizing when I see him once every year. Boys and rocks don’t match…it seems!
Logo…I didn’t mean to say teh brand does not have sparks of quick-ass funkiness about them. I myself own two rather fine t-shirts myself…it is just this one that does my head in!
Walela…can we use it as halloween decoration and put liquirice in it?
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 3:30pmI have a Pet Rock I can sell you.
Comment by Nessa Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 3:51pmYou can absolutely put licorice in it. Ground beef, even.
Comment by Walela Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 4:12pmMinka – what a funny post! I have a yellow, silicon-free button pinned on my motorcycle vest.
Why don’t they put sulphur egg smell in the cans they sell at Geysir? At least you might be able to smell it when you opened the can…
Walela – is your skull filled with straw and clay?
Comment by tsduff Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 7:26pmNessa, a fossil in it? I sorta would like a dragon egg- if at all possible!
Walela, I ofund Beef Jerkey today in iceland. This was a good day indeed!
Terry, I love that shirt and my sister send me a black button some time ago…I could stick it into my lips 🙂
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 22 August 2007 @ 8:52pmI actually would say smart.
If someone can get people to buy a tshirt with a slogan that reads: “Boys are stupid throw rocks at them” they are a genius. 🙂
Comment by Chris C Thursday, 23 August 2007 @ 1:38amChris…considering that the objective is to sell a shirt, they might as well put something witty on it!
Comment by Penguin Thursday, 23 August 2007 @ 6:10amafter 1989 they sold small cans like spam but the writing on them was “The Last Breath Of Communism”. we bought one. feels nice to look at it. of course, we’ve never tried to open!
Comment by ariel Thursday, 23 August 2007 @ 8:49amariel, wouldn’t it be like opening pandaora’s box. As Gandalf would say: “Keep it safe!” 🙂
Comment by Penguin Thursday, 23 August 2007 @ 11:12amNot only are we not climbing up the ladder of intelligence, there’s a slide right next to it, and the immense majority of the population is sliding right down into the depths of stupidity. You only have to look at the reality shows on T.V. to see it live and uncensored. We haven’t seen those shirts over here yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long.
Comment by Theresa Thursday, 23 August 2007 @ 11:40amTheresa, Hear…hear! I have no worries they’ll make it over to Spain in no time…silly girls are to be found everywhere 🙂
Comment by Penguin Thursday, 23 August 2007 @ 3:14pmare you saying that intelligence is like a game of ‘Chutes and Ladders’? hehe
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