Because “R88888P” has absolutely nothing to do with rape except for two letters? What if their license plate said “RUMPLE”? That one even includes three of the letters from the word “rape”. Still, “rape” seems an equally unlikely interpretation in both cases.
It’s the placement of the two letters and the repeated ei sound that carries between them. Don’t have to be offended to see it.
I saw a license plate yesterday that said N8VYMOM, which I’m sure is meant to be Navy Mom and it reminded me of this thread. I don’t know what R88888P is supposed to mean, but I sincerely doubt it’s malicious.
Navy Mom should learn that the conventional L337 substitute for A is 4, and B for 8.
Which conventional spellings were probably already taken. As was the truly conventional spelling NAVYMOM.
As with domain names and usernames, the nice easy ones are all used up effectively forever. So folks have to get ever more clever (or is that cryptic) to encode their message.
Exactly. It could be something as innocuous as “Our Hitler, Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler! Pee!”
I would bet $20 that this is the answer.
We have a large ex-pat Chinese population where I live, and vanity plates featuring 8’s are common.
Sorry, duplicate post.
It’s a reference to a classic puzzler that preoccupied several Dopers a few years ago, and even spawned the linked site.