A little out of the subject for this community, but I thought it might make a few people smile here.

The Tour de France employs “dick erasers” (not the official job title) who quickly cover political messages and obscene drawings on the road so that they don’t get aired on TV when the cyclists arrive. With their paint rollers, they often try to turn the penises into things resembling animals like butterflies, rabbits and owls. I’m guessing they chose owls in particular because their big eyes are convenient in this case. Obviously, the workers have very little time to do their job, so they can’t make very lifelike drawings.

If you want to see how it’s done, here’s the 2 minute video I took the screenshot from (French with Dutch subtitles).

  • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I didn’t know about the race to paint dicks on the road. This sounds more entertaining than watching cyclists being followed by thousands of vans.

    • troglodyte_mignon@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      I don’t care about the sport at all, but I occasionally watch the Tour for the landscapes, and I’m probably not the only one.

      I don’t know how it is in other countries, but on French TV, one of the commentators gives geographical and cultural informations in addition to the boring sport stuff. That should be great, but unfortunately, the guy who’s been in charge of that since several years is a far-right pseudo-historian who regularly gives slanted information… I’m so angry that he was given this job again when there are so many serious journalists who could do a great job.

  • anon6789@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It feels like a cut Taskmaster challenge!

    The ones they’re painting over look drawn so well, I was wondering if they were making more work for themselves! 😉

    A lot of the locations look somewhat remote, but the original graffiti looks so intentional and symmetrical for something done as a prank.

    I really wish I could follow along with what they’re saying, based on the comment section.

    The owl is good though!

    • troglodyte_mignon@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      A lot of the locations look somewhat remote, but the original graffiti looks so intentional and symmetrical for something done as a prank.

      They are, since it’s a mountain stage, but during the Tour a lot of people go there to watch. Some viewers are very involved, making banners, sometimes wearing costumes, painting (technically illegal but tolerated) words of encouragement on the road, so I’m not surprised that the penis-drawers would make the effort to draw them symmetrically.

      I really wish I could follow along with what they’re saying, based on the comment section.

      The language isn’t the easiest to follow, it’s really informal and the sound often isn’t very clear. At the beginning, they say that they’re going to the col du Tourmalet. (It’s a famous mountain pass in the Pyrénées mountain range that’s almost always part of the Tour.)

      Basically, they’re riding in the car, then one of them say “there, a dick”, then step out to paint and the older guy describes what he’s doing and/or gives instructions to his younger collegue (apprentice?). Rinse and repeat.

      At 0:38, Older Guy says he’s drawing a circle around, and tells Younger Guy to try to draw legs. Then OG explains to the camera that they’ve just made a little owl to hide the sight of the genitals to the public, but he doesn’t seem very satisfied with the “legs” YG has painted. :-)

      (Uiltje is “little owl” in Dutch. In French, he calls it a hibou, not a chouette — I believe that Dutch, like English, doesn’t make the tuft-based distinction. By the way, when he says « petit hibou » the guy is making the liaison (that is to say, pronouncing the word « petit »’s terminal T) when he shouldn’t. That kind of mistake is actually fairly common among native speakers.)

      At 1:23, OG says they’ve found four (dicks) in five kilometers. (« Quatre à l’actif, sur cinq kilomètres. »)

      At 1:35, OG says “a dick, oh fuck” and sighs, then says “we’ll try to give it wings, [inaudible] butterfly”. OG laughs, tells YG “I’ll do it” and says something about YG “messing around” (? « Tu fais n’importe quoi. ») but while he paints the eyes and antennae, YG paints the wings in a nice big circle, and OG tells him “well spotted” (« bien vu » — maybe it’s more like “well done” in this situation?) in a satisfied way.

      At 1:57, OG says “another one, oh fuck”, then another word I can’t understand. Outside, OG says “I’ll give it two eyes” (« Je vais lui faire deux yeux. »), then he adds they find a lot of those in mountains passes. It ends with him saying something like “Okay, come on, let’s go for another one”.

      The older guy is a pensioner called Patrick, who’s been doing this as a side job for something like fifteen years. Apparently, he’s well-known enough in some circles to have been asked for his autograph several times.

      • anon6789@lemmy.world
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        24 hours ago

        Oh wow, you didn’t have to do all that! You really went above and beyond! I truly appreciate it.

        The older guy is a pensioner called Patrick, who’s been doing this as a side job for something like fifteen years.

        They did surprise me a little bit. I was expecting young, trendy, street artist types.

        Both gentleman handled it much more professionally than I likely could. I’d be giggling a lot. 😁

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    There is a team of painters patrolling the streets of the TdF who’s job it is to paint over any kind of dicks and boobs, and they are a busy bunch during the tour.

    • troglodyte_mignon@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      Yes! I don’t know where it is unfortunately. I really miss mountains…

      Edit: I’m stupid, they say at beginning of the video that they’re going to the col du Tourmalet, in the middle of the Pyrénées.