# Bathroom walls - the ultimate message board?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 21, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246 "2014-11-21T14:54:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/21 "2014-11-22T07:35:19Z")

</div>

There’s a building at Berkeley (Dwinelle Hall, maybe?) whose bathroom stalls were filled with grout puns: Alexander the Grout, Grout Expectations, The Madness of Grouts, etc. And of course, what urinal is complete without a finely nibbed “The Unbearable Lightness of Peeing”?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/22 "2014-11-22T11:40:43Z")

</div>

The finest literary erotica I ever read was on the walls of a bathroom stall that had until recently been used by a company of female army recruits. I had gone to some vacant barracks for a sit-down, and what I happened to read there was, well, quite eye-opening: descriptions of their (female) NCOs, the things they’d like to do to them, creative uses of standard issues military kit… let’s just say I ended up spending a \*lot \*more time in that stall than I had intended to.

I even wrote down the name of the most popular NCO for future reference, because any women who could elicit such ardor from a gaggle of 18-year-old bi-curious girls was worth getting to know. Never could find her, though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/23 "2014-11-22T14:43:01Z")

</div>

In one toilet stall (the women’s bathroom), someone had drawn three faces. One of them was squinting, saying “No, I swear my eyes are closed,” the other’s eyes were shut with a mortified expression, saying “Dude, dude, she’s _peeing_. Be cool.” The third face had a huge grin, and said “Gentlemen . . . always be polite.”

In the same stall, someone also scrawled “Help! I’m turning into a monkey!” Hmm . . .

On the entire back of a different stall door, so it’s all you’re looking at when you’re doing your business, someone wrote with a paint pen: “You just lost the game.” Luckily, [I’ve won](http://xkcd.com/391/).

Another time, I saw a whole conversation unfold over the course of about a month or so.  
The original statement: “I feel like I’m at the end of my life more then the beginning.” (The urge for me to correct “then” to “than” with a pen was strong, but I’m not _that_ bad).  
Someone else: “Are you OK?”  
First person: “No.”  
Second person: “Tell me what’s wrong.”  
First person: “Fuck off, bitch!” _insert doodle of hand flipping the bird_  
Second person: “Well that’s” - and that’s it. “Well that’s”. 😕 I need closer on the conversation, dammit!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/24 "2014-11-22T17:19:08Z")

</div>

_Firm but cohesive let my offerings flow,  
Not roughly swift, nor impudently slow._

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/25 "2014-11-22T18:19:15Z")

</div>

> [@TreacherousCretin](#):
>
> “We aim to please.  
> You aim too, please.”

> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Slightly better version, put as a question:  
> “We aim to please.  
> Will you aim too, please?”

Too wordy.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/26 "2014-11-23T03:04:42Z")

</div>

My college’s music department was previously in an old decrepit building so a certain leeway with bathroom graffiti was allowed. All the above sayings were there, but my favorite (and one I started) was a columnar list of people/places with the initials J C - starting with Jesus Christ, Johnny Carson, James Colter!? [sic] (a grad student).

The list kept growing to over 20 names (JC is really common!), so as a joke I wrote “J C and the Sunshine Band”. Someone corrected it by overwriting KC, which then started a whole another column for K C. Eventually we had a column for I C, J C and K C. L C didn’t fare so well though.

The department head later held a Christmas party at his house. He thoughtfully covered his walls with blank newsprint which he kept as a souvenir.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/27 "2014-11-23T05:43:15Z")

</div>

**Bathroom walls - the ultimate message board?**

I’ve often thought that if we truly want to fight ignorance, we need to expand the battlefield to include bathroom walls. Currently the forces of ignorance rule them almost entirely, hence the proliferation of racism, homophobia, profanity and so forth.

Each of us should carry a sharpie whenever we go out in public. Whenever we’re in a bathroom stall, we should write some calculus equations or facts from history and science on the wall.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/28 "2014-11-24T04:51:40Z")

</div>

> [@ITR\_champion](#):
>
> **Bathroom walls - the ultimate message board?**
> 
> I’ve often thought that if we truly want to fight ignorance, we need to expand the battlefield to include bathroom walls. Currently the forces of ignorance rule them almost entirely, hence the proliferation of racism, homophobia, profanity and so forth.
> 
> Each of us should carry a sharpie whenever we go out in public. Whenever we’re in a bathroom stall, we should write some calculus equations or facts from history and science on the wall.

Now thats funny.  
“Find the value of r”. I bet some sports comments could get a pretty good graffiti war going.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/29 "2014-11-24T11:59:07Z")

</div>

> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> In my architecture school bathroom: ACROPOLIS NOW!
> 
> The old standard: Here I sit all broken hearted, came to shit but only farted.

Around 1986, I was in a fast food restaurant bathroom in Wheaton, MD. There was a very long, very detailed, very crazy, but equally fascinating rant on the wall. It covered many topics, and concluded by blaming a fourth-generation descendant of J. P. Morgan as the culprit of much of the world’s problems, even helpfully providing his current address in Manhattan.

Below it, someone had scrawled: “We’ve sure come a long way from, ‘Here I sit, all broken-hearted…’”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lurking\_Quahog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lurking_quahog/32/21274_2.png) [@Lurking\_Quahog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lurking_Quahog)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/30 "2014-11-24T19:22:04Z")

</div>

A couple of months ago, I visited Paris. On the back of a stall door in the Louvre men’s room was written (in English):

There are three things I hate.

1. Vandalism
2. Irony
3. Lists

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/31 "2014-11-24T19:36:48Z")

</div>

Possibly not relevant to this thread, so sue me, but the first time I ever heard this:

> [@cochrane](#):
>
> In days of old when knights were bold  
> And rubbers weren’t invented,  
> They stuck their cocks in woolen socks,  
> And that’s how babies were prevented.

We were walking through our neighborhood looking at Christmas lights and someone had a giant Winnie the Pooh inflatable yard decoration, with Pooh looking down into a large stocking…my husband quoted that little rhyme and I nearly injured myself laughing.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/32 "2014-11-24T19:40:42Z")

</div>

> [@Lurking\_Quahog](#):
>
> A couple of months ago, I visited Paris. On the back of a stall door in the Louvre men’s room was written (in English):
> 
> There are three things I hate.
> 
> 1. Vandalism
> 2. Irony
> 3. Lists

“There’s only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures, and the Dutch.”  
-Nigel Powers

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/33 "2014-11-25T15:17:14Z")

</div>

There are only 2 types of people in this world - those who can extrapolate from incompete data, and

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/34 "2014-11-25T19:14:38Z")

</div>

Over the TP dispenser: “[Name of college] diplomas; take one.”

Over a really gross backed-up toilet: “Do Not Flush–[rival school] baptismal font.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/35 "2014-11-25T19:37:50Z")

</div>

“En este lugar sagrado  
Donde acude tanta gente.  
Hace fuerza el mas cobarde  
y se caga el mas valiente”

Translation:

“In this sacred place  
visited by so many  
even the coward struggles  
and the valiant shits himself”

Sadly it does not rhyme in my translation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/36 "2014-11-25T19:40:11Z")

</div>

I’ve found that the moderators on bathroom walls do a poor job.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/37 "2014-11-25T21:03:12Z")

</div>

> [@Frodo](#):
>
> Sadly it does not rhyme in my translation.

In this sacred stall,  
Visited by us all,  
The coward struggles and strains,  
While the brave shit out their brains.

Does that capture the spirit of the original?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/38 "2014-11-25T21:27:36Z")

</div>

> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#):
>
> If you sprinkle  
> When you tinkle,  
> Please be neat  
> And wipe the seat.

Mean version, from a biker bar:

If you pee  
Upon the seat  
Your ass  
Will get beat

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/39 "2014-11-25T22:24:22Z")

</div>

> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I’ve found that the moderators on bathroom walls do a poor job.

A piss-poor job? 😃  
I used to work on a college campus where the faculty had their own restrooms, inaccessible to the students. Someone had scratched the following onto the electric hand-dryer in the men’s room:

“Push button for a one-minute message from the Dean.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246/40 "2014-11-25T22:27:26Z")

</div>

> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#):
>
> A piss-poor job? 😃

Dammit! :mad: :smack:

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246.md?page=1)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-walls-the-ultimate-message-board/705246.md?page=3)
