Anyone else see this about the levitra couches on cockeyed.com ? I suspect it is Spanish for “throw me away”. Anyone know for sure?
AskNott
January 27, 2005, 10:43pm
2
I checked my Spanish to English dictionary and three online translators. No help. If Levitra means anything in Spanish, it’s not very common.
cher3
January 27, 2005, 10:57pm
3
A lot of those look photo-shopped to me. Especially the ones on the second page. Why would people be writing in so many odd “fonts?”
I’m also suspicious of at least some of the photos - the spray-painted words look a little too “good.” Still, if some of them are legit, that leaves the question about what it means. I don’t know Spanish, but the first thing that occurs to me is that maybe it means something like “pick this up,” directed at the, ahem, sanitation engineers. I’m thinking of the English word “levitate.”
I tend to subscribe the explanation on page 5 of the updates :
**It has come to my belief that the Levitra couches phenomenon is nothing but a hoax created by yourself to gauge a different phenomenon known as ‘pseudo-ostension’.
According to the glossary Snopes.com , an urban legends website (a pretty good one too): 'Pseudo-ostension is the act of deliberately acting out an existing urban legend (e.g., children secreting pins in their Halloween treats to throw a scare into the community or pranksters in Pulaski, Virginia, placing syringes in payphone coin return slots in 1999). ’
I think it’s rather ingenious that you pull off a prank that people can easily replicate…all it takes is a digital camera, a can of spray paint and a couch sitting in an alleyway. The fact that your website is loved by many people from across the US and the world makes a perfect conduit for which to create a seemingly random network of “couch-sightings”. In essence, you’re creating your own bigfoot, where people feel the need to fabricate their own version of something they know not to be true in order to become a part of the legend by being an eyewitness (don’t get me wrong though, I DO believe in Bigfoot!)
I dig what you’re doing. If you tell a story often enough it becomes true, and the thousands of Cockerham minions in the US would be eager to contribute to your story by spray-painting a couch and sending in a picture.
Well Rob, I think that you really Cockerhammed your audience with this prank. Congrats.**