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Seriously Bad Taste Merchandise

On the vaguely islamic theme, anyone else recall the fuss from 10 or so years ago about some clothing stores selling Arafat/Hamas-style keffeyahs under the cringingly ironic name "peace scarf"?
I think here in the UK, Primark sold them for a while, with their marketing aimed primarily at youngsters. The press soon dubbed them "terrorist chic for kids" and the retailers initially renamed them to "Euro scarves" and then pulled them completely.

Guess the Press had forgotten that Yasser Arafat shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin & Shimon Peres in 1994.
 
Guess the Press had forgotten that Yasser Arafat shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin & Shimon Peres in 1994.

Ah yes - the year the Nobel Peace Prize lost any last vestiges of credibility!
Mind you Kissenger and Le Duc Tho stretched the definition of peace too (but they declined to accept it).
 
Keffiyehs were common unisex fashion accessories in the U.S. in the 1980s, usually as a neck scarf for outdoor wear. I don't remember anyone attributing any political meaning to them.
 
Keffiyehs were common unisex fashion accessories in the U.S. in the 1980s, usually as a neck scarf for outdoor wear. I don't remember anyone attributing any political meaning to them.

Maybe the Arafat or Hamas associations weren't so prevalent in the USA towards the end of the last century?
Perhaps the Oslo peace accord and subsequent Camp David and Taba talks did give a hope of peace. Then though, after the launch of the (2nd?) intifada it's hard not to associate that garment with Arafat/Hamas/Islamic Jihad etc. There clearly was a public outcry against marketing that garment as a "peace scarf" against a background of an explosion of violence.

I guess timing is everything. There was a time in the U.K. when the iconic Doc Martens footwear gained an unsavoury reputation for being synonymous with "bovver boys" and, if you saw any male, who wasn't elderly and French, wearing a beret, you couldn't help thinking Ché Guevara or just possibly "ooooh Betty"!
 
I own several keffiyas in both the black/white and black/green (combat) colour designs. One is a bit fancy with silver printing and beads. Nobody's yet looked uncomfortable when I've turned up in them to my somewhat terrorism-sensitive job.
 
Also Wolfie Smith.

Of course - and not forgetting:

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I own several keffiyas in both the black/white and black/green (combat) colour designs. One is a bit fancy with silver printing and beads. Nobody's yet looked uncomfortable when I've turned up in them to my somewhat terrorism-sensitive job.

As long as you don't have one of these on your desk ...
PSX_20191217_080414.jpg
 
There was a time in the U.K. when the iconic Doc Martens footwear gained an unsavoury reputation for being synonymous with "bovver boys" and, if you saw any male, who wasn't elderly and French, wearing a beret, you couldn't help thinking Ché Guevara or just possibly "ooooh Betty"!

Knew I had it somewhere.

Vive La_0575.jpg
 
At one point I became convinced that keffiyehs were issued by German midwives on their NHS, because you never saw a boxhead teenager who wasn’t wearing one.

maximus otter
 
Where did you get that?!

Its the cats you really have to watch out for.
While searching for the above image I found this cat loving jihadi. Fortunately the cat wasn't with him when he blew himself up.#

Cats're admired in Islam for their cleanliness. A Muslim who cares for cats is considered pious because the Prophet himself loved them.
 
At one point I became convinced that keffiyehs were issued by German midwives on their NHS, because you never saw a boxhead teenager who wasn’t wearing one.

maximus otter
That's probably a bit racist...
 
... I guess timing is everything. There was a time in the U.K. when the iconic Doc Martens footwear gained an unsavoury reputation for being synonymous with "bovver boys" and, if you saw any male, who wasn't elderly and French, wearing a beret, you couldn't help thinking Ché Guevara or just possibly "ooooh Betty"!
Also Wolfie Smith.
Being American I had to look a lot of those things up.

Back then I did hear that Doc Martens, particularly the tallest ones with extra-extra long laces, were popular among skinheads (especially the neo-Nazi types) in the U.K. I seem to remember yellow being the lace color for fascists in Scotland, but I now see it is almost universally recognized as being anti-fascist/anti-racist. Go figure.

And now that I've heard of it - and getting seriously off topic - can someone explain the etymology of the term "some mothers do 'ave 'em"? (I mean beyond the TV show.)
 
Being American I had to look a lot of those things up.

Back then I did hear that Doc Martens, particularly the tallest ones with extra-extra long laces, were popular among skinheads (especially the neo-Nazi types) in the U.K. I seem to remember yellow being the lace color for fascists in Scotland, but I now see it is almost universally recognized as being anti-fascist/anti-racist. Go figure.

And now that I've heard of it - and getting seriously off topic - can someone explain the etymology of the term "some mothers do 'ave 'em"? (I mean beyond the TV show.)

It was a popular comedy show, featuring a socially inept man called Frank Spencer, in some hilarious situations that invariably turned into disasters (having flying lessons, job interviews, performing in pantomime, joining the air force, attending a training course, taking his wife on holiday etc.) .
He wore a long trenchcoat and a beret.
The title music was " Some Mothers do Have Them" in Morse code, played on a piccolo and the title simple asks how could any normal mother give birth to such an outrageous incompetent as poor Frank.
 
And now that I've heard of it - and getting seriously off topic - can someone explain the etymology of the term "some mothers do 'ave 'em"? (I mean beyond the TV show.)

It's an old Lancashire saying. There was a popular radio comedy show between 1958-72 called The Clitheroe Kid, starring the comedian Jimmy Clitheroe. The phrase was used in that series among other Lancashire idioms.
 
It's an old Lancashire saying. There was a popular radio comedy show between 1958-72 called The Clitheroe Kid, starring the comedian Jimmy Clitheroe. The phrase was used in that series among other Lancashire idioms.

According to Wordhistories.net, the first recorded example was in the Daily Mirror on 17th February 1941.
Columnist William Neil Connor, who wrote under the pseudonym Cassandra, derided Hitler as "a grisly creature" and finished by declaring "Some mothers do have 'em!"
 
'Tis the season for bad taste... Behold ! Swinger Xmas:

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They will definitely get you drunk on egg nog and take advantage of you.


Ermagerd erts derbebe jezerx teme egen.jpg

Ermagerd erts der bebe Jizzerx teme ergen!


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Or perhaps as a Grinch 5th Columnist you prefer this sexually explicit anti-Xmas sweater.


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Or perhaps you are more in the mood for a happy sex-worker Xmas? Way to respect your pimp ladies.

Surely you must have seen some Xmas themed things out there is such execrable taste you felt they deserve to be remembered? Fire away!
 
I dont know if anyone remembers the 'John Smiths' beer adverts with Peter Kay diving, the catchphrase being 'Top Bombing', i remember in HMV you could buy a slogan t-shirt with the catchphrase in bold letters, this was shortly before the 9/11 twin towers attack, they disappeared very soon after that (no great suprise) and i have looked online and can find no sign of them, anyone else remember seeing them?
I did however in my searching find some t-shirts in equally bad taste

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Im not suprise to see the Hiroshima tee currently unavailable and no time idea when it will be, we can only hope, NEVER!
 
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