Embrace them. Honor them. Share them with us...
TTP celebrates the goofy pictures we pose for when we let our guard down as tourists – because photos of sunsets and statues can get pretty damn boring.
We love to connect with fellow travelers who don't take themselves too seriously -- and especially seek contributions from childhood vacation albums!
SUBMITTED BY: Mark “Pierre” Z. LOCATION: Paris, France You might mistake the above Parisian street scene with a photo from a 6th grade social studies book. This is what French people do in their cultured capital: smoke and wear funny hats on their way to the boulangerie. But wait! Something is amiss! That French […]
Based on his spirited Superman pose in Metropolis, we already knew that Barack Obama was a fan of the Tacky Tourist genre. But it’s a pleasure to see he has company in the Emerald Isle. Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny just presented President Obama with a hurling stick, joking that members of Congress should get “a […]
SUBMITTED BY: Tacky Tourist Photos LOCATION: San Antonio, Texas (2011) Sexual puns related to cows make us extremely squeamish.
SUBMITTED BY: Michelle and Rob J. LOCATIONS: Sweden and Iceland (2009/2010) For years, young brothers Ben, David and Stephen have been jokingly told that their Swedish heritage has some Viking bloodlines. The faux genealogy usually came up when they had to brave cold weather. So naturally, the boys gravitated to these Viking Opera helmets during […]
SUBMITTED BY: Jonathan Willis LOCATION: Jerusalem, Israel (1991) Compared to the nutcakes running the Middle East today, there’s something almost cute about having Saddam as your enemy. (Jonathan Willis is a high school English teacher who loves promoting literacy and Greek mythology-themed water ballet.)
The above headline is the flattering endorsement we just received from Away.com, a witty travel blog owned by Orbitz. Editor Lacy Morris names her Top 10 Tacky Souvenirs (Photo-ops @ Pisa are #4) and her historical insights on snowglobes are worth the click alone!
In honor of the late humorist Art Buchwald, we serve up his infamous “Tourist Prayer,” which we recently discovered in a Manhattan gift shop window. Buchwald wrote his prayer in 1971 in response to a bizarre Greek Orthodox Church anti-tourist prayer that called on Jesus to protect their monasteries from the “scourge” of world travelers […]
At an emergency session, the Executive Board of Tacky Tourist Photos unconditionally condemned the use of a souvenir statue to attack Italian Prime Minister Silvio Burlesconi at a political rally in Milan: “Whereas souvenir statues are meant to be peacefully displayed on dusty bookshelves and mantelpieces…. And whereas the Duomo Cathedral of Milan is a […]
When the Chinese government politely asks a t-shirt designer to stop selling political parody, there’s really only one underlying question to take into consideration: “Hmmmm… Would I rather have a few hundred dollars or have tanks run over me and my souvenir shop?“ These Obama-Mao shirts were selling as fun kitsch, like the cute Maoist […]
SUBMITTED BY: Liz LOCATION: Italy (2009) Would be great to set up a time-lapse video camera in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa for a year to document how many millions of photo albums contain this hokey photo gag. Ironically, Liz and her husband Mike were unfamiliar with local tacky customs in Pisa and […]
