Invasion of the Paper Smilies

This is a one-page local oddity story that feels so much like an old zine article. "Imagine a smiley-face drawn on a paper plate with a thick black marker. Now imagine seeing hundreds of them plastered on street signs, telephone poles, bus benches, and other city fixtures. The strange smiles greet you every day for weeks, even months. When they are torn down by irritated city workers, they are replaced by fresh ones overnight. A year later you still spot these eerie happy faces staring down at you as you speed along the freeway. Anxiety sets in. Where are these generic smiles coming from? What do they mean? Who's messing with your mind???"

That's it. Someone or some group puts up smiley faces around Los Angeles, circa 1995. Carla Sinclair and others even reached out to "the Cacophony Society and other prankmasters, but to no avail. Nobody seems to know where these devilish smiles are coming from. We are baffled."

When I looked for any local news stories about this years ago, I couldn't find any online reference to this low-key prank. I still can't find any online reference to smiley faces in Los Angeles in the 1990s.

This isn't "ever dream this man?" spookiness. It's not the cheeky-quirky Hello? Is it me you're looking for? This is basic— roughly drawn smiley faces on paper plates, stuck onto things, in one city.

Which is a lovely little reminder to make a bit of nonsense. Confuse people, but don't annoy them. All you need is paper plates, an inky pen, and some adhesive. You don't have to make the next Andre the Giant has a Posse (which became the Obey [Giant] marketing/ brand*), just make nonsense and share it in your neighborhood.

* The Posse shifted to Obey/ Disobey in 1994/95, according to a member of the original Posse. "When OBEY started, we did it in two stripes. One was OBEY. The other was DISOBEY. It was the same imagery. But one set said OBEY, and the other set DISOBEY. Here's why: The message was the medium. Let me put it even clearer: It didn't mean anything. The apparent message is ironic and counter-culture. In fact, it's not."

Which brings this back to those paper smiley faces. My take-away? Have fun. Confuse the normals. Be baffling. Let that be enough.