Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Humor
WTF is wrong with that plate?
From time to time, license plates wind up with unintentionally humorous alphanumeric combinations. Massachusetts had a run of plates with "POO" as the trailing characters, for example, but th North Carolina DMV's inadvertent pun takes the cake. About 10,000 plates were stamped up bearing the characters WTF before a 60 year old teacher's grandchildren whispered the internets meaning of the acronym in her ear, spurring her to raise the issue. Perhaps they need to surf the web a bit more in North Carolina's DMV offices, but at least anyone offended by his or her tag can get it replaced for free. The best part of the entire debacle? The DMV's own sample image for its website was "WTF-5505."[Source: DriversDrive, Photo: WXII]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jeff Johnson 8:47AM (7/09/2008)
Last time I checked it was the DMV's job to test, license, and handle it's business. Not troll the internet for three letter sayings that change year to year based on what 15 year old kids make up.
There will always be "something" that means absolutly nothing to most people and will have an inside joke or giggle associated with it. 5 years from now there will be meanings/slang/curse words that are just normal language to us today. Is it really the DMV's job to keep up to the minute on all this ever changing BS?
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DCragtop 9:17AM (7/09/2008)
amen JJ
jv2k 11:21AM (7/09/2008)
wtf has been a common expression over the internet for over a decade now.
dskinner 11:38AM (7/09/2008)
You're absolutely right! Gotta love this politically correct world the left has pressed upon us!
jg 11:59AM (7/09/2008)
Oh please. If it was just the left that was pushing PC it wouldn't exist. The right is in on it too. Stop being so naive, it's killing my country.
User 2:34PM (7/09/2008)
I love that line... "Stop being so naive, it's killing my country."
I feel that way all the time.
Ed 5:48PM (7/13/2008)
As for North Carolina having odd plates I was behind A car several years ago and noticed that the plate ID was KKK 666 and the first thing to my mind was that three registered REDNECKS weredisplaying it but as I pulled up beside them at a traffic light It turned out to be three Black guys and were probably unaware of their plate ID.
ASEVENSEE4 8:47AM (7/09/2008)
the internets is srs bzns, and that woman needs to stfu srsly.
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John Johnson 8:53AM (7/09/2008)
We also have "WTH" plates.
It's like the DMV has never been on the Internet.
Yet the NC DMV rejected my "OJROBDME" plate saying it was "in poor taste".
I was going to try for "WTF-MATE" figuring it would slip by, but not now. Oh well. "AUTOBLOG" might still be available.
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Yar 9:03AM (7/09/2008)
I'm hoping "LED SLD" is still available when I finally get my CTS-V.
John Johnson 9:07AM (7/09/2008)
The best part was that the county completely missed the memo that I didn't get the plates. My tax bill came in and sure enough, OJROBDME was down as my tag.
:/
I want to custom order a "DIABETUS" plate for a diabetic friend of mine as a practical joke, all I need is some info about his car :D.
Judy Zik 12:56PM (7/09/2008)
I would like a WTF GM plate to put on our Saturn.
Allan 8:54AM (7/09/2008)
Ya... this is still BS. I posted about this once before... here is the letter the NY DMV sent me last year:
http://www.allankintz.com/images/dmv-letter.jpg
I got SRSLY in its place... because it is srsly retarded that I had to go through this crap for a damn license plate.
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Brandon 10:10AM (7/09/2008)
Lol they spelled it WFTLOL the last time the said it.
That really does suck though, I don't see how it's offensive...because anyone who knows what it means would laugh...
innoc3nt 6:16PM (7/09/2008)
WTFLOL!
franklin p 10:31AM (7/13/2008)
ROTFLMAO! (Can't use that either I'd guess!) SO SOME DUM DUM WHO SHOULD MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS MAKES A COMPLAINT AND YOU SUFFER?! THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY, PLAIN AND SIMPLE, BASED ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND RELIGON, A CONSTITUTION,BILL OF RIGHTS AND AMENDMENTS. WE WERE DOING JUST FINE AND THEN IN THE LAST 10-15 YRS, SOMEHOW ALL THESE POLITICALLY CORRECT IDIOTS STARTED SHOWING UP AND RUINING THIS COUNTRIES VALUES! YOU DON'T LIKE IT,LEAVE! PLEASE! DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT!
Dude 9:14AM (7/09/2008)
I can't believe that this woman just figured out that Americans will create a meaning for any three letter combination.
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Frank 9:24AM (7/09/2008)
"5 years from now there will be meanings/slang/curse words that are just normal language to us today."
For many of us, "DMV" is already a slang/curse word.
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Mark Goddard 9:29AM (7/09/2008)
I photographed a great plate in Sydney, Australia a while ago. It's not a special order plate, just a standard issue. Someone should have a word in the owner's grandmother's ear. It can be seen at
http://www.orsm.net/php/showmemore.php?count=7&folder=../shite/update20080207/
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Ross Nicholson 9:31AM (7/09/2008)
This is 2008. Why are we using license plates to recognize cars still? Isn't that a 19th century technology? Surely we can do better than that!
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