xkcd

by **Qaanol** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:01 am UTC

Title: “My decal set has no adults, just a sea of hundreds of the little girl figures closing in around a single cat.”

Are these…common? I’ve never seen them before.

by **TaylorP** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:03 am UTC

I've seen a lot of "baby on board" type decals, but none with a sticker for each person. Maybe Randall can start to sell them?

by **nickzeke** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:04 am UTC

The unmarked cops in Seattle love to put these on their cars, so watch out!

by **ntj2010** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:06 am UTC

I see those on mini vans all the time, one for each family member, sometime a cat, dog or grandparent is included

by **vmanivan** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:09 am UTC

Subaru Outback and Honda Fit

by **mrmcgibby** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:10 am UTC

@TaylorP

They're all over the place here in Utah. Maybe it's all the big families.

by **Stanistani** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:13 am UTC

Qaanol wrote:http://xkcd.com/946

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/family_decals.png

Title: “My decal set has no adults, just a sea of hundreds of the little girl figures closing in around a single cat.”

Are these…common? I’ve never seen them before.

Southern California, all over the place. I'd buy ones made by Randall.

by **RebeccaRGB** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:14 am UTC

I see these all the time. Here's one place that sells them: http://www.familystickers.com/
It's kinda ridiculous.

by **Steve the Pocket** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:14 am UTC

nickzeke wrote:The unmarked cops in Seattle love to put these on their cars, so watch out!

Aren't "unmarked" cop cars painfully obvious because of the goofy extra antennas and the fact that they're all Crown Victorias? Or is it different in Seattle?

I'm curious if there's a bigger joke in the pop-up caption than "a cat about to get the Elmyra Duff treatment from a swarm of little girls all at once is funny".

by **madock345** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:16 am UTC

I see a golf club in the right cars future...

by **jpk** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:17 am UTC

No, I've never seen them before either. And I get a lot of chances to examine the backs of people's cars... like when they pull into the bike lane and suddenly stop, or pull out of a parking space oblivious to the oncoming traffic (ie, me) or pull similar stunts, or - my favorite - stop in the middle of a block to talk to someone headed the other way, who's stopped for a red light. Never mind that there's traffic behind them...
Boston, I love you but you suck some times. Like, when I'm on the way home from work and someone's giving out stupid pills to anyone who's got a driver's license.

On topic: why is it that people with "baby on board" signs never take them off when the baby is not actually in the car? Or rather, why is it that I see so many "baby on board" signs on cars which manifestly do not contain a baby in the passenger compartment? And should I call a cop and have them rescue the baby from the trunk? And isn't a "baby on board" sticker more or less a confession to child abuse? (think about it...)

by **ConMan** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:21 am UTC

From what I gather, the original "My Family" decals came from a family in Australia. And are now so widespread that there are entire Facebook groups dedicated to hating them - which I don't really see the point of, even if I do think they're a bit cheesy.

by **JohnTheWysard** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:28 am UTC

Being half of a DINK (Double Income No Kids) myself, I winced a bit at this...

The decals are pretty popular around here in Idaho as well (and some of them are LARGE families).

by **imbri** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:34 am UTC

I, too, have never seen these type of decals and I even live in the same area (ish) as Randall. What I'd love to see him poke fun at is those college-name decals - you know, the ones in capital letters and always the same font - that I see quite often.

by **devinkye** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:38 am UTC

I'll confirm that these are a big deal here in Utah. My dad got so fed up with them that he put the South Park characters on his rear window to stay sane.

I'd be on-board if Randall or anyone else decided to make these!

by **Time Kitten** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:43 am UTC

I had always wondered if those weren't kill tallies like on fighter planes.

by **Tiberius** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:47 am UTC

What does the alt-text even mean?

by **adho** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:47 am UTC

They're fairly common in Australia. I find them weird. They sometimes include pets.
What if it dies? Or the parents split up?
Where do you get them? One moment there were none, the next they were all over everyone's cars.
I've never seen them in shops. Was there a memo or something that was sent out?

by **glasnt** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:49 am UTC

They sell them at Newsagents and such in the Colonies.

They also have MyFriendStickers http://www.myfriendstickers.com/

by **Kain** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:00 am UTC

They are rather common here in south Florida (maybe only in the suburbs? I dunno). Some variants have different sizes for babies, toddlers, children and teenagers, and I once saw one that had a mother, two children, and a cross (which I first thought to mean that her husband/lover had left her, and all she had left was her faith... which is probably the case, but not in the way I assumed). I've noticed that a lot of them tend to be on cars that have that annoying yellow "Choose Life" license plate (I call it annoying not because I disagree with the anti-choice/pro-life stance, though I do, but rather because at least in Florida, the only other yellow license plates indicate government vehicles, iirc).

by **Meng Bomin** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:05 am UTC

The van the right is the reason that the Mormons, Amish, Hasidic Jews, and conservative Catholics will inherit America [with some other ethnic groups thrown in].

by **joee** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:07 am UTC

I find them ridiculous. They are pretty common in these parts. Mostly middle-class, snobby families.

Ditto a "baby on board" sign means "watch me carefully cos I may drive erratically at any moment"

I certainly prefer them to the car I saw in my area covered in "Waiting for love" "abstinence is cool" "Jesus loves those who wait" etc stickers

by **jpk** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:10 am UTC

Meng Bomin wrote:The van the right is the reason that the Mormons, Amish, Hasidic Jews, and conservative Catholics will inherit America [with some other ethnic groups thrown in].

Anyone who is moved by that sort of thinking to have children is the sort of person who shoud be prevented from having children at all costs.
(by the way, you do realize that of the groups you've listed only the Hasidic Jews are even potentially an ethnic group, right?)

by **faunablues** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:21 am UTC

I never minded these stickers too much, but now there are so many that I kind of do.

But I did see a good one - it was a man and a woman with 11 cats.

I was seeing my future...

by **Ozkaban** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:22 am UTC

That is just gold. I wish the xkcd version was for sale :mrgreen:

by **Steve the Pocket** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:51 am UTC

I remember seeing a van in my college's parking lot that had like a jillion bumper stickers on it, pretty much covering everything behind the rear doors. They were even grossly inconsistent in their messages: one said "God is too big to fit in any one religion", and another said "On Judgment Day, you're gonna wish your car had Jesus stickers."

And on a suspiciously related note, I was looking over a couple mini-notebooks I kept in my backpack in college and jotted down random stuff on, and one of them was an unattributed quote: "Ichtheology: The belief that you'll go to heaven if your car has Jesus fish on it." Ironically I think I'd buy that on a bumper sticker!

by **LoganCale** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:57 am UTC

Tiberius wrote:What does the alt-text even mean?

My only guess was a reference to the Mouse Army, but I'm probably way off there.

by **nmp303** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:58 am UTC

jpk wrote:Why is it that people with "baby on board" signs never take them off when the baby is not actually in the car? Or rather, why is it that I see so many "baby on board" signs on cars which manifestly do not contain a baby in the passenger compartment?

I hate those. Are they bragging about accomplishing something that literally billions of other people have accomplished before them, or are they trying to convince other drivers to drive safer around them. The latter seems quite pointless, because that sticker will convince nobody to drive safer. I already drive as safe as I can to protect myself, so even if I did care about a baby that probably isn't in the car anyway, I wouldn't be able to drive any safer to protect it. In the end, the baby has more to fear from its parents' stupidity than from traffic.

by **A_of_s_t** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 6:07 am UTC

Those are some nicely drawn cars.

Just saying.

by **odog1999** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 6:13 am UTC

Steve the Pocket wrote:
nickzeke wrote:The unmarked cops in Seattle love to put these on their cars, so watch out!

Aren't "unmarked" cop cars painfully obvious because of the goofy extra antennas and the fact that they're all Crown Victorias? Or is it different in Seattle?

In Oregon, at least, they like to use everything from small pickups to large family-sized SUVs as unmarked cars

by **lemmings** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 6:23 am UTC

Steve the Pocket wrote:I remember seeing a van in my college's parking lot that had like a jillion bumper stickers on it, pretty much covering everything behind the rear doors. They were even grossly inconsistent in their messages: one said "God is too big to fit in any one religion", and another said "On Judgment Day, you're gonna wish your car had Jesus stickers."

Not inconsistent, atheists' humor is often slightly twisted when it comes to religion. :twisted:

As a man who's conceded never to have children, I applaud the new bumper sticker for us. Although, it's not entirely I don't plan to keep all of my financial assets in bags of money, I'd really like a kick-ass car too and that'd just as close to me as my money bags. To deal with this problem, you need to create a bumper sticker of the car you're driving, but it's not accurate unless it has it's own bumper stickers so we're going to need fractal stickers.

by **feyayeruka** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 6:50 am UTC

oh wow, this is a total GOOMHR moment!
I live in Australia, these damn awful decals are ubiquitous. And annoying. Seems like just about every family car has a set depicting all family members. But I was recently driving and saw this:

BMW Z4 my family stickers by majikfaerie, on Flickr

Seriously - anyone putting My Family stickers on a BMW Z4 deserves to have their car confiscated for crimes against humanity! Or at least against discernment in automobiles.

by **zzyss** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 6:51 am UTC

I don't get that BMW one, but there's no ambiguity here:
http://stickerish.com/products-page/parody-decals/443-2/

Saw this on another forum, and thought it was pretty clever.

by **Mithiwithi** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 7:05 am UTC

My own car has two stickers: one adult male, and one cat. Hey, my cat is my family!

by **Felstaff** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 7:41 am UTC

I have no idea what these things are. They seem... about as annoying as any car sticker, ever. Which is to say; mildly.

Call me cynical, but I'm sure these will be available in the xkcd store in no time.

by **Cloud Walker** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 8:07 am UTC

Reason # 3538 why I don't want kids. . .

by **Azkyroth** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 8:13 am UTC

Of course, you can't take your money with you. Family members are easier.

jpk wrote:No, I've never seen them before either. And I get a lot of chances to examine the backs of people's cars... like when they pull into the bike lane and suddenly stop, or pull out of a parking space oblivious to the oncoming traffic (ie, me) or pull similar stunts, or - my favorite - stop in the middle of a block to talk to someone headed the other way, who's stopped for a red light. Never mind that there's traffic behind them...
Boston, I love you but you suck some times. Like, when I'm on the way home from work and someone's giving out stupid pills to anyone who's got a driver's license.

Weird. I'm in the CA central valley and I'm constantly told that Boston drivers are driven and aggressive...and constantly annoyed by the fact that roughly half the population here fucking drives like they're on opiates or something. Could this be a symptom of a wider problem?

by **Farabor** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 8:56 am UTC

This reminds me of the recent Daily Show bit where they handle the horrible STD known as "children", that sap your time, energy, money, etc.....

by **canoemoose** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 8:57 am UTC

nmp303 wrote:
jpk wrote:Why is it that people with "baby on board" signs never take them off when the baby is not actually in the car? Or rather, why is it that I see so many "baby on board" signs on cars which manifestly do not contain a baby in the passenger compartment?

I hate those. Are they bragging about accomplishing something that literally billions of other people have accomplished before them, or are they trying to convince other drivers to drive safer around them. The latter seems quite pointless, because that sticker will convince nobody to drive safer. I already drive as safe as I can to protect myself, so even if I did care about a baby that probably isn't in the car anyway, I wouldn't be able to drive any safer to protect it. In the end, the baby has more to fear from its parents' stupidity than from traffic.

I was under the impression that if the vehicle was involved in a serious RTA, the emergency services would know that (a) there's a baby or young child somwhere and (b) if there's not, where the hell is it?

Of course, this benefit is completely negated by parents leaving the sign in the car all the time.

by **scarletmanuka** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:13 am UTC

adho wrote:They're fairly common in Australia. I find them weird. They sometimes include pets.
What if it dies? Or the parents split up?
Where do you get them? One moment there were none, the next they were all over everyone's cars.
I've never seen them in shops. Was there a memo or something that was sent out?

I've seen them in shops here in Perth, probably more often than I've seen them on cars. I didn't get any memo.

They are mildly interesting and we did even have a look at them once to try to pick out which ones we'd use for our family (2 adults, 3 kids, no pets), but in the end couldn't be bothered getting them.

I presume if you split up or whatever then you have to remove the corresponding stickers. I'm not sure why this would be a problem.

What seems weird to me is the "pregnant mother" sticker. That's not going to be a good long-term investment.

Also, re the title text: "You're a kitty!"

[Edit: Hi esp!]

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