I see trucks with “A. Dewy Pyle” printed on the side all the time. Not a very appealing image, but it’s a genuine company. Makes you wonder what’s bad enough about the guy’s first name that ‘Dewy’ seems the better choice.
The worst ones for this I think are the Funeral Homes. I’ve seen some that just seemed, well, not well thought out. I don’t care if it is your last name, Scar is not a good name for a funeral home.
A rather renowned one if you went to a local univeristy was ajecent to our campus: Cumming Cockburn.
(Pronounced Koh-burn, of course.) The had a brilliant, white stucco buidling with their name in big, red letters along the side that faced the road.
It sort of beame a landmark, because everyone had made a mental note of it when they’d first seen it. If you ever had to meet at a nearby restaurant, you’d just say, “yeah it’s next to the cumming cock burn building.”
There’s a landscaping company in Toledo named S&M Triangle Services.
Okay, Avarie537, I give up: what’s a D&C? All I can think of is ‘Duck and Cover’, but I’ve a suspicion that the truth us more stomach-turning.
Or is that the kind of question I’m gonna regret asking?
Here’s a clip from a newspaper:
The article is from 12/26/00 (http://www.ecm-inc.com/news/caledonia/2000/december/26countyboard.html).
So yes, Cisco, there really is a Pump and Munch.
It’s a medical procedure. Dilation and Curettage (familiar to anyone who has miscarried).
FAR MORE stomach-churning.
Oh, and I just thought of another, same town as Cumming Cockburn – there used to be a restaurant called Fung King Express. Dunno if it’s still there. It used to sort of be across from a bingo hall.
Couple more here …
Panda Express Chinese Restaurnant (Is it finger ling-ling good, like Homer’s Kentucky Fried Panda?)
Family Funeral Service (Don’t call us if you’ve got just one!!)
They used to be called Truckstops America, but have changed the name to TA Travel Center in order to sound like a fine place to bring a station wagon full of kids to.
Me again…
Panda Express doesn’t serve panda. Just reasonably decent Chinese quick-serve.
And I forgot all about the Sanitary Bakery here in SF.
Special mention going to Fat Chance Belly Dancing and Luen Fat Bakery, also in SF.
And let’s not forget MD Tusch - a proctologist specializing in hemmorhoids that advertises in the NY subways.
Diner’s actual name is “Colonial Diner.” Burned-out (or vandalized) neon letters turned it into “Colon Diner.” eeeeew.
Later fixed, then different letters out made it “COLONIAL ER.” What’s in the Colonial Emergency Room? Lots of leeches? Apparatus for bleeding?
Double “D” Body Shop
I believe there was a restaurant that opened awhile ago called (and I think this is the right spelling):
Phucket
Try saying that outloud.
Except that Phuket, Thailand, is pronounced (roughly) pu-ket, with an aspiration on the “p”.
PMS Lasers
Actually, they build a fine product, it just craps out on you once a month.
My hometown used to have a store called S&M Appliances. Closed down a couple of years ago, but the name was always a long-running joke amongst the locals.
I remember Loaded magazine used to have a regular section, in which they encouraged their readers to photograph amusing signs from around the world and send them in. My personal favourites were those of a store in Germany called Wankmuller, a restaurant in China called Fanny, and a computer dealer in Hong Kong which went by the rather charming name of Fuk Hing Business Machines.
In Vernon, TX there’s a Squirrely Shirley’s Truck Stop. Now that I think of it, that may not be unfortunate.
Ageing myself here, but I remember the late Steve Allen when he had the Tonight Show joking about a Big A Cleaners in Hollywood, where he said one went to get one’s big A cleaned. Anybody know if that’s still there?
I’ve done business with the now defunct “Guns 'R Us/Postal Plus” in Phoenix but I think the name was a benefit to them.
I’ve always been amused at the high number of companies named Precision Screw. A couple of towns over, there’s a building with that painted in huge letters on the side.