Tackiest Souvenir Competition

[arminnie]

What's the tackiest souvenir you've ever seen? Not necessarily bought just observed.

This was inspired by the funny things at work thread. I posted about how we bought really tacky souvenirs while traveling on company business.

(mine was a plastic alligator with a snowglobe belly that had two alligators on a seesaw with a boat in the background).

But my ALL time favorite tacky souvenir was in Venice Italy about 35 years ago. It was a rocking goldola that was like a music box. It was SO ugly and had lights that lit up and played stars and stripes forever. It was big too and expensive which is why I didn't buy it for the kitsch factor.

 

[frndofpooh]

Plastic salt and pepper shakers in the shape of prisoners from Alcatraz. They had on the black and white striped outfits, black hats and everything! My sister got me a pair of them on her honeymoon (as a joke). Who would want to eat with these things on the table?

 

[escape]

I've seen a lot of tacky stuff - here and overseas.

One that comes to mind is what I saw in Rome last year. While looking for small gifts to bring back, my DH and I noticed some pasta in the shape of male anatomy parts (to put it nicely). I couldn't believe it. What was so funny, though, is that we saw it in a lot of different souvenir shops - in nice shops!

Well, we didn't bring any back but once we started telling people about it at home, several of these folks thought it would be hilarious to get and to serve it a fun gatherings. I guess it would be funny as a gag gift.

 

[simba928]

My aunt and her family went on vacation with another family for a couple years. One year, she brought back some carved surfer guy with blue yarn hair. It was really weird. She put it on a shelf in her bathroom as a joke and it really clashed with the whole room. She used to have parties all the time and they would exchange gag gifts and play pranks on eachother (one year people took shrimp and hit it all over her house, behind the couch, in the radiator, it was everywhere). So she took the surfer dud to someones house and left it there for them because this person especially hated that thing. Now everytime my family goes away, we look in the gift shops to see if they have a cheap one that we could sneak into my aunts house and put where the old one was just to be mean.

 

[Jeafl]

You haven't seen tacky souvenirs until you've seen the shops in Wisconsin Dells.

We once picked up an ashtray as a gag gift for a friend, It was a little miniature toilet that had a sign sticking out of it that said "Place BUTTS here".

 

[thewishfire]

One year, she brought back some carved surfer guy with blue yarn hair. It was really weird.

I have one of those!! Well, I did, at least. A friend of mine brought it back for me from florida. But I guess I have to give her some credit, we were like 10 or 11 at the time. I think mine had purple hair, but I can't be sure. It is an interesting little piece of "art" though.

 

[Pam]

I've seen a lot of tacky stuff - here and overseas.

One that comes to mind is what I saw in Rome last year. While looking for small gifts to bring back, my DH and I noticed some pasta in the shape of male anatomy parts (to put it nicely). I couldn't believe it. What was so funny, though, is that we saw it in a lot of different souvenir shops - in nice shops!

Well, we didn't bring any back but once we started telling people about it at home, several of these folks thought it would be hilarious to get and to serve it a fun gatherings. I guess it would be funny as a gag gift.

Psssttt...... try Spencer's. They have ***** pasta, ****ie pasta, etc. (And I know that the filters will censor some of these words, but they are male and female anatomy parts!) They also have mints. Not that I would know anything about such things.

One of our more tackier souvenir purchases was the plastic Buffalo Poop Patty (which doubled as a handy-dandy frisbee!) at Wall Drug Store in South Dakota.

 

[pearlieq]

I have a magnetic bottle opener from the Flamingo in Las Vegas. It's shaped like a bottle and filled with some kind of electric blue liquid. In the liquid, of course, is a big giant hot pink flamingo.

I think it adds just the right amount of class to my refrigerator doors...

 

[cardaway]

One of our more tackier souvenir purchases was the plastic Buffalo Poop Patty (which doubled as a handy-dandy frisbee!) at Wall Drug Store in South Dakota.

That is the capital of tacky souvenir land.

I saw pictures of shirts some people were selling in NY after 9/11. Can't imagine worse than those.

 

[Pam]

That is the capital of tacky souvenir land.

I saw pictures of shirts some people were selling in NY after 9/11. Can't imagine worse than those.

Yes - and I just bet that you bought a Jackalope figurine, didn't you??

Wow - the 9/11 shirt hawking is just horrible!

 

[cardaway]

Yes - and I just bet that you bought a Jackalope figurine, didn't you??

Actually I limited myself to some toys for the kids back home and a great bumper sticker that I'm sad to say got sold with the my old car.

All the toys were funny and tacky but it was so long ago I don't remember the specifics.

 

[kejoda]

Yes - and I just bet that you bought a Jackalope figurine, didn't you??

Wow - the 9/11 shirt hawking is just horrible!

dh had me believing jackalopes were real


as for tacky can't really think of anything. I haven't had a chance to go shopping with Pam yet.

 

[Pam]

Actually I limited myself to some toys for the kids back home and a great bumper sticker that I'm sad to say got sold with the my old car.

All the toys were funny and tacky but it was so long ago I don't remember the specifics.

Well - I must confess that my then 11 year old son bought a stuffed Jackalope!

We bought the bumper sticker as well!

I remember buying a super tacky souvenir in the Bahamas in 2000 - but for the life of me I can't remember what it was - or where it's at.....

 

[Pam]

dh had me believing jackalopes were real


as for tacky can't really think of anything. I haven't had a chance to go shopping with Pam yet.

My coworkers once told me that I am the only person they know who can go to the Kwik-Fill (gas station) next door for a Pepsi and turn the trip into a major shopping experience!

Sadly, it's true. The goofier/trashiest/moronic that the item is - the more I feel compelled to buy it.

 

[kejoda]

My coworkers once told me that I am the only person they know who can go to the Kwik-Fill (gas station) next door for a Pepsi and turn the trip into a major shopping experience!

Sadly, it's true. The goofier/trashiest/moronic that the item is - the more I feel compelled to buy it.

somehow I knew that Pam. I think shopping(or for tha matter anything) with you would be a hoot!!

 

[Chim Chiminy]

Just out of HS, I had a friend who returned from her summer vacation to the beach and brought me back a lacquered pine napkin holder with barrel shaped salt and pepper shakers. The holder had a picture of Jesus decopaged onto it and it said Greetings from Corpus Christi.

Extremely tacky, and I thought not very respectful of Jesus.

 

[stevenpensacola]

We've got a Plains, Georgia measuring cup....

has Jimmy Carter's likeness on the side....purchased from Plains during the Carter days.

 

[lyzziesmom]

I'm gonna have to say it was the animal made out of actual dried cow poo that my aunt mailed to my mom. I have no idea where she got this, or WHY? but tacky it was, not to mention gross.

Also on another occasion, the same aunt sent my mom a large piece of chocolate in the exact shape, size & color of a large pile of poo. I'm told it was delicious, but I could not bring myself to try it.

And I nearly forgot - I don't know if it qualifies as a souvenir, but definitely a gag gift: the same aunt once again, sent my dad a tie with a repeating pattern of a screw nestled into the letter U. Dad wore it for years before he took a good look at it & figured it out!

 

[arminnie]

One that comes to mind is what I saw in Rome last year. While looking for small gifts to bring back, my DH and I noticed some pasta in the shape of male anatomy parts (to put it nicely). I couldn't believe it. What was so funny, though, is that we saw it in a lot of different souvenir shops - in nice shops!

I'm going to Rome in October.

The other (not on the desk) souvenir we had at the office (in a brown paper bag) was a little wind up toy. A hopping little appendage.

 

[Pam]

Off topic:

arminnie,

I just noticed your signature. I am so sorry about Cody.

Our chocolate lab, Cocoa passed away 12 days ago. She was 13, going on 14.