GRAFFITI
Graffiti is the Italian word for scratching or scribbling that was adopted by archeologists in
the middle of the seventeen hundreds when Pompeii was rediscovered. This ancient city on
the Bay of Naples had been totally buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D 79. When
unearthed, its buildings and decorations were found in a remarkable state of preservation. Among
the revelations were a great number of scratchings on the walls of the town. Many of these
surface drawings and writings were of a pornographic character. Since then archeologists have
found graffiti on the walls of other Roman places of antiquity like Herculaneum, and in other lands.
Since then the history of graffiti has been a series of further extensions of the word to include the
inscriptions on privy walls, the scrawls on advertising placecards and posters, the revolutionary
slogans painted on the walls of buildings, and even the impersonalized printed quips on
lapel buttons.
All kinds of public places and writing instruments serve the graffitist's purposes. Places include
schools and brothels, telephone booths and churches, libraries and tombstones, railroad stations
and caves, playgrounds and prisons.....Instruments include pen and pencil, chalk and crayon,
lipstick ans ink marker, paintbrush, spraypaint and pen-knife...
A readable popular introduction to the subject is Norton Mockridge's THE SCRAWL OF THE WILD
GRAFFITI REPARTEE
Repartee is a quick, witty reply involving two persons at one time in one place. Graffiti repartee
Similarly involves two persons in one place, but there the resemblance stops. The timing and the persons
Are unrelated, the wit is not spoken but written, sometimes more than two persons participate, and there are
Other differences.
The comeback maybe an interposed word, as when "I Am a Virgin" is followed by "I Am a Former Virgin"
Sometimes the initial or terminal letter is crossed out, like the final e in "thine." The proverbial "The more haste, the less speed" over the urinal in a men's lavatory has been revised by drawing a line through the first letter of the last word.
Most commonly the scrawled retort is written underneath the original graffito. A variation of graffiti
Repartee is the poster advertisement that asks a rhetorical question. It often invites the retort of a gaffitist.
A hair-spray advertisement inquired: Who Says Women Are Fickle? The scrawled repartee read: "Verdi."
Another poster asked: Did YOU Make New York Dirty Today? The retort discourteous read: "New York Makes ME dirty EVERY day."
Yet another variation is the wall sign, like the one in an apartment house that read: "Exterminator Will
Be Here On Friday. Underneath a graffitist added: "Please have your bugs ready."
Don’t write on this wall.
Retort: Don't type on it either
My mother made me a homosexual
Retort: If I buy her wool, will she make me on too?
Eat more fish and live longer
Retort: Eat more oysters and love longer
People are no damned good!
First retort: Psychiatrists are worse
Second retort: Psychiatrists are not people
Is an hour of pleasure worth a lifetime of regret?
Retort: How do you make it last an hour?
Call on Jesus now
Retort: If calling collect, Dial 1-800-CALL-ATT
Love thy neighbor
Retort: I did, and lost my wife.
I got what every woman wants!
Retort: Then you must be in the fur business.
Edith Bunker is a transvestite
First Retort: She's dead, you moron!
Second retort: Okay. Edith Bunker is a dead transvestite.
Joe may I join you? Audrey
Retort: I did not know I was coming apart, Joe
I HATE GRAFFITI
Retort: I hate all Italian food.