Outcomes from the strange Polish postcards prank
Marilyn sez, "Brian Sack of Banterist offered his services on eBay a few months ago to 'Drive Someone Crazy' with a series of postcards from Poland. Sack promised that 'These postcards will be rant-ravingly insane, yet they will be peppered with unmistakable personal details about the addressee. Details you will provide me.' The postcards would be signed illegibly. The postcards were written and sent and received, and the joke finally revealed to the recipient. Sack shares the postcards now on his site." Link
Auction: "I will send maddening postcards from Poland to the person of your choosing"
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Now we need to hear from the auction winner, and from the post-card receiver! I feel like someone ripped out the last twenty pages of a good book :(
Epic genius.
Since when is a postcard, with German lettering, from a restaurant in Berlin, Germany, fall under the grouping of postcards from Poland?
When the whole category title is "from Poland and Berlin."
RTFA.
I've never been, but something about Poland, of all places, strikes me as surreal and the perfect setting for this marvelous stunt.
I have a cousin who was a vegetarian for about ten years, because she experience meat overload when traveling through Poland. It was the breakfasts that really did her in, she told me. Couldn't face meat at all when she got back.
It all sounds very David Lynch.
Oh that's the BEST!
Very funny!
Hey! This is racist. This shouldn't be on boingboing. The idea is funny, the racist abuse of gypies is not.
#7 Everyone stop laughing as the race card has been played.
I kept on CTRL-F ing for "gypsies", but it would always return false. Do I need a better computer?
Bulgaria would work, too.
Kazakhstan *would* have worked in the pre-Borat era, but with Borat it kind of makes that pretty "meh" now.
As for the gypsy jokes; c'mon relax.
It's not like they're real, it's like making fun of elves or dwarves.
Strange German--I mean Polish--postcards from Danzig, er, I mean, G'dansk.
That's funny, I type CTRL-F and it takes me right to your post. Are you a gypsie?
For those of us in North America, instead of "Gypsie" (or Roma) read "Indian" or "Native American." Without the casinos. Socially disadvantaged, abused by both the government and society, the Roma have it pretty rough, but they're not sexy like Tibet, so no-one really kicks up much of a fuss.
On the other hand, any mention of gypsies doesn't render the whole article / prank any less funny. If it helps you sleep at night, just remember the whole goal was random, bizzare postcards, so a) what's more random than a gypsie, to the NorthAm mind, and b) you can create a context where any gypsie bashing is done in ironic mockery of prevalent racism, so it's ok, it's art.
Basically, it's still funny if there's a gypsy joke in it, but #11's comments only pass because of the ignorance of the issue in NorthAm.
@#14: All those NorthAm comments - you really dislike Mexico, don't ya?
So. . . if the "mark" didn't actually "go insane" (and end up committed to an institution), does the winning ebay bidder get his/her money back?
AnthonyBeret -- Racist abuse of whom? Surely you meant to write "Roma", no?
I'm sorry, what's a "gypie"?
This reminds me of www.sayitfromfrance.com
Send virtual or even real postcards from Paris. Funny thing is that it has a hilarious "insult generator" which comes up with some pretty whacky stuff...
Brian Sack has lots more funny stuff on his website, including this gag you can play that comes with an official-looking letter announcing the imminent arrival of "YOUR NEW MONKEY":
http://www.banterist.com/archivefiles/000397.html
You can send it to anyone who doesn't read BoingBoing.
This totes reminds me of a game I once played with a postie friend of mine, called 'What Can I Post?' The romance novel cover and the beer coaster made it, the processed cheese slice and the napkin did not. They all had stamps, I felt ripped off.
Is there an around the world service for this? Because I'm getting "Stuff on my Cat" Postcards from Amsterdam, Japan and South Africa (Flickr Pics of the postcards.
The card details aren't particularly personal, so I have no idea who is behind it.