Talk:Andre the Giant Has a Posse

message: I still don't get what the entire "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" is all about. Someone please give me a satisfying answer. Why did they choose Andre for this pop culture Icon? Because he was a giant? What do they mean by posse? Where they fans of the Wrestler?
I find it frustrating that this icon has become so popular yet no one can explain what the hell it even has to do with any foundation in logic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.99.204.99 (talk) 21:36, 9 September 2005‎
:I agree, I'm going to put up a cleanup - confusion - tag and ask that someone who knows to edit this article so that it is actually clear just what it's about.  It's very frustrating to read an article and by the end still have no idea what's going on --222.152.103.40 06:55 &  Graphia 06:58, 17 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi.  Having known Shepard, Blaze, Brian, the Shank twins, the Drex (gawd what a crappy ramp they had) and many more in Charleston (actually Summerville) in '86, I can tell you that the 'Andre' thing came about because the real Andre was performing locally and there was an ad in the paper. He drew it for no other reason than bored teenagers doodle and goof around.  Then he xeroxed it till it was almost illegible, made sticker sheets and it just sorta rolled from there. I have a few original paper stickers and some of the first vinyl ones somewhere around.  I hate to tell you but there is NO LOGIC, NO MEANING behind it.  I think that's the best part, some people get so worked up BECAUSE it doesn't mean anything and they either feel that it should or they innately NEED it to mean something, otherwise I suppose it fucks up their little worldview.  Anyways, that's the story. Sbrawner 02:40, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm confused by the year 1989 being cited in the main article.  The article cites Fairey's 2008 interview with Format magazine as if it were an accurate presentation of the facts.  Fairey's story there doesn't seem to ring true, though.  Sbrawner's recollection above matches my own in that the stickers came about in 1986 while Fairey was still in the Charleston area.  I am quite certain that the stickers were in the skater community in the Columbia, SC, area in 1986 or 1987.  There are plenty of other websites that claim that it originated in 1986.  --LMNO Goldfish (talk) 19:56, 1 June 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks, I came to "talk" puzzled about this. At the college I went to in MN someone slipped OBEY stickers under doors in our dorm. I remember specifically because some people were rather upset by it. I graduated in 1986, so I don't see how a creation date of 1988 is possible.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.188.89.180 (talk) 01:39, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  (WTHell?) 

message: Someone include a list of cities where this is found?— Preceding unsigned comment added by VarunRajendran (talk • contribs) 09:47, 31 October 2005
: The main problem with that is it is found in most cities around the US, and hundres more around the world.222.152.103.40 06:55, 17 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: List of cities

message: I've added a meaning section.  It's funny how the act of trying to explain something gives you an insight you didn't have before, but I don't have any inside information.  I invite somebody who does to confirm my thoughts.
Theinfo 04:44, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  added meaning section, removed confusing tag 

message: What does "POSSE" means
:Group of people, or perhaps more accurately a following. Mathmo 10:39, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  POSSE? 

message: This area is a little absurd. There are just too many. If we want to keep this, I think we should keep the major ones.  This is taking up valuable space that could be used for real information. This article covers less than 1% of what Obey Giant is today.
:I've created a subpage of this talk page so we can re-organize and cut down that section before fixing it in the article. Please help me out at Talk:André the Giant Has a Posse/Pop Culture References Rewrite. Thanks. Stale Fries taste better 04:29, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: As a start, I suggest removing all references to bands/people/etcetera that are red links. I assume those are not as notable. In fact, I'll do it now. Stale Fries taste better 04:31, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Appearances in pop culture 

message: definitely overdue for a split Theinfo 04:14, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  split off appearances 

message: I'm moving the Lee Harvey Oswald photo here, since it just seems to be just speculation that it's an inspiration.  Perhaps it's just a coincidence.  It's certainly an interesting find.  Anyone who knows more, please chime in.
--Theinfo 14:19, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  lee harvey oswald sticker moved here 

message: Added a "Make Art Not War" example to the "Meaning" section, but despite the "thumb" parameter, only the large version appears.  A little help anyone?  (fixed--it was the "frame" attribute)  Marsh 13:51, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Added a photo, <strike>but can't seem to get the thumbnail to display</strike> 

message: http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/evolk12/posse/chazhasaposse.htm?ID=76
If I knew how to upload the image, I'd add it to the article.  I see these stickers from time to time in Los Angeles and have even seen them in San Diego.LiPollis 10:40, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Charles Darwin has a Posse too!

message: See All your base are belong to us for an acceptable (short, sourced) trivia / pop culture section. Deiz talk 14:01, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Trivia 

message: Shouldn't this article just be "Andre the Giant..." not "André"? There's no accent on the stickers. --AW 15:51, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok. I'll move it now. --AW 15:46, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That's simply because Andre is in capital letters, and an accent is not normally used in typography unless it's lower case. "André the Giant..." is correct 91.85.32.166 (talk) 14:23, 9 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Accent mark 

message: Is it worth mentioning that computer game Counter-Strike has this image selectable as one of default sprayable images?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.250.45.172 (talk) 20:53, 23 June 2007‎
:This image, parodies, and variants have made innumerable appearances in pop culture. It's not worth listing them. 20:53, 23 June 2007‎ 84.250.45.172 --65.78.107.132 (talk) 23:58, 28 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Counter-Strike 

message: Was pretty funny from 1994 til about 1998, 1999, or so, seeing Gary (http://www.garykarp.com) stickers, as much or more than Andre ones in San Diego, popping up everywhere.
In that period, Gary was photographed & left as stickers in many cities/states/countries, on all continents (yes, even Antarctica).  Got to the point people thought Gary was out of the Andre camp.  Big props to Andre and all that, but Gary was its own little big thing, that sprouted w/no prior knowledge of Andre.
Funny story:  working at MTV Movie Awards, circa 1995.  many A-list celebs, from Nirvana guys to Adam Sandler, to you name it, left with a Gary sticker subtly slapped on their back.
Anyway, good to see Andre's posse still going strong!
Cool that Gary still is hanging out, too, 14 years later (http://www.myspace.com/garykarp)
Illiteral (talk) 08:15, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  1990s in San Diego w/Andre & Gary 

message: I don't mean to step on anyone's toes, but Obey Giant has appeared many, many times in North American popular culture.  A list with three examples including a Family Guy reference seems unfitting.  (Family Guy parodies so many different aspects of pop culture, it's hardly noteworthy that Obey Giant is referenced.) Therefore, I'm deleting that section.  I'd also like to see the parodies section cleaned up.  I remember years ago looking at the obey site and seeing at least a few dozen different parody images.  They have since been removed.  --Catch153 (talk) 00:08, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Appearances in North American pop culture" deleted 

message: 1. As many editors have noted, notable among them is July 2008 Tyrenius, "This book needs to be mentioned...") 
2. This book is about the Andre, Obey, Shepard Fairey and its complete history!  
3. This book has been praised by Fairey himself...see note  
4. Please do not delete again...let WIKI consensus rule. "Deletion is not a WIKI policy."  
Thank you --Baby fu baby (talk) 18:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Umm, ignoring the somewhat incoherent nonsense above, the only suitable place for this to be mentioned would be in a "Further reading" section after its notability has been verified. It is never appropriate to simply dump a spammy reference to a book of unknown notability and its ISBN number into an article. I appreciate you are not fully conversant with Wikipedia practice and policies, but your continued readdition of this without wondering why experienced editors are removing it is becoming disruptive. Perhaps you could read WP:NB and give a rationale as to how the book meets WP notability criteria? You could also read the Conflict of Interest guidelines and be honest about whether anything there would prevent you from editing in connection with this book. A glance at your editing history shows your account to be a single purpose account, yet another reason why you should tread very carefully. Deiz talk 06:48, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

text: I appreciate you are a single-purpose account and inexperienced with Wikipedia, e.g. notability and verifiability requirements, article formatting, understanding of various policies and guidelines etc. etc., but there is such a thing as refusal to get the point. Why not spend your energy creating a WP:NB compliant article for this book, rather than spouting utter nonsense on talk pages? Deiz talk 03:54, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

text: Just to clarify: my comments on the book related to the main Shepard Fairey article, where its mention seemed valid as Fairey had praised it on his site.  Whether it's relevant in this article or not, I don't know. Ty 01:23, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Philosophy of Obey" 

message: Shepard Fairey endorses Barack Obama and has worked on his campaign. Ever since he announced his candidacy for president I've been seeing Obama stencils based on the Obey Giant springing up everywhere. I'm not sure where it would fit, since it's not a parody like the Tattoo or Palin ones because it's straight from Fairey himself. Should we have a mention of this in the article?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.107.80.74 (talk) 13:12, 18 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  A section or snippet on the Barack Obama versions? 

message: I think we should change the title of this article to "Obey Giant." That is in fact the name that Shepard has chosen, as in http://www.obeygiant.com Iconic D (talk) 05:44, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Change title to Obey Giant

message: Apologies if I dorked up adding the hangon tag.  Couldn't see an explanation on here as to why the image should be deleted, and as the image is of the sticker that started the reason for this article, I'd think there should be an awfully good reason for deleting it. BrianDeacon (talk) 05:44, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Contested speedy delete of sticker image

message: I believe the article is not balanced. Many believe that the art is plagiarized. Please read this page for an example http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm You don't even need to read it, just browse the images.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ciper (talk • contribs) 07:37, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed.  More to the point, though, the entire article is subjective as it is, and incredibly biased.  It goes to great lengths to absolve the phenomenon's creator of any wrongdoing, and transparently attempts to refute against any and all criticism without offering any real counter-argument.WildlifeAnalysis (talk) 02:52, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Not everyone is happy with this artist/phenomenon

message: Reviewing ATGHAP page after hearing I had been "buffed", not only did I put it back, I cleaned up some other stuff. Mostly little. But one of the things that sort of irritated me is the presence BOBEY sticker. It IS indicative of the parody stuff, but there are better known parodies. What bugged me most was in reviewing the changes when it appeared, it looks as if someone was is just getting their stuff "up" by tagging the page.
Which in itself is cool but the bite itself is kind of lame. Like I said, I think there are better examples, ones that are less obscure.
Another thing that caught my eye is that the page seems looser and less informative then it had been previously. Maybe I'm mistaken but a lot of the quotes from "critics" [sic] come across as derivative and inconsequential.
People get hung up on OBEY GIANT vs ATGHAP so maybe there should be another, separate OBEY page, and one which outlines the present status of the project/experiment (ie OBEY).
Lastly, the plagiarism accusations are something that is not new per se to the work, but now that Shepard has got all this attention it seems to have picked up steam. It is one of those things that come along with all the other stuff: Fame, notoriety, longevity, perhaps even relevancy (?). In any case, since FSH is doing all the stuff by hand (exacto on rubylith of imagery; silk-screened), the accusation can certainly to be argued. My point however is that while noteworthy, it seems out of place as the lead-off for the article's main body.
Also, and possibly worthy of addition, is that the phrase, "Andre the Giant has a posse" was inspired by the Sir Mix-A-Lot track, "My Posse's On Broadway" and the idea of rap "posses" at the time (1988-89). FSH was doing a piss-take on it all, very true to his punk rock/skate rat roots in this sense. But worth recalling is that in 1989 sampling was a VERY BIG DEAL. Nearly all hip-hop artists were being accused of...plagiarism. Worth noting. Mongonikol (talk) 20:53, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Some notes

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thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion 

message: I cannot find how the change into "OBEY" went ('stylistically and semantically'). Can someone add that to the article? -DePiep (talk) 21:06, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Obey?