Ribald fake Muni ads amuse riders

The savvy Muni rider packs a quiver full of distractions to guarantee amusement and privacy no matter what their slow, unpredictable and sometimes smelly bus ride has in store for them.

Anyone caught without their music, a book, or sunglasses typically has but a few desperate options:

• The window, assuming you can glance outside without that weird lady in the seat by the door thinking you’re looking at her.

• A nap. Nice play, in theory. But when your eyes are closed you can just feel everybody looking at you. Now you’re the weird lady.

• Your fellow passengers. Well, good luck with that.

Thankfully, some unknown soul with a filthy funny bone has taken up the cause of entertaining Muni riders on their daily adventures.

For the past few days, riders have been spotting, snapping and sending pics of fake, dirty versions of transit ads around the Twittersphere and beyond. Heroic local transit observers Muni Diaries and the always-wry, never-boring SFist have led the way in publishing the randy rip-offs.

Judging from the punch lines — and the spelling — this humorist may have strong ties to the eighth grade. Skewered products and places like “Fartine,” “Du Beers,” and “Cum Tums,” show a clever if not juvenile obsession with bodily functions and fluids.

The latest ad to be spotted riffs off a slogan from the Maritime Museum, “Been down on a submarine lately?” Interestingly, a version of this ad has popped up before, nearly four years ago on a Muni cable car, no less.

Legal? Probably not. Funny? You judge. But given the marketing budget of SFBay, all we can say to the purveyor of these pranks is feel free to rip us a new one. But please, please: Get our URL right. SFBay-dot-CA. Thanks!

Jesse Garnier

Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.