I was digging through some files on my computer, looking for something that must have been important but I absolutely cannot remember what it was right now, but I did manage to find this strange picture, a record of the time I made a cardboard Volkswagen Rabbit. I mounted these on wood chassis with casters and seats so you could get in and scoot around. I think I added LED lights, too?
I made this as part of an event I was helping out with for the art collective I used to work with in Los Angeles called Machine Project. This was a fundraiser event, and we had a sort of weird DMV theme, which kind of started as a joke about the worst possible themes for a party, but then we ended up doing it. It was fun!
We made a lot of really bad fake driver’s licenses and museum pass IDs, too, using that archaic giant-sign-with-a-hole-in-it-shot-with-a-Polaroid method that I actually did use for my first fake ID way back when.
There’s Mark, the guy who ran Machine Project, with the fake Getty ID I made. I bet it still works!
Was part of the DMV theme having to stand in line for hours waiting for a surly bartender to give you a drink?
I saw a real live running driving-on-the-road VW Rabbit in the wild two days ago. I would include a photo if I could. The quality of the cardboard one is on par with the first-year Rabbit dad bought.
How many did you make? Please tell me the party devolved into people drinking and driving these around getting into shenanigans. A cardboard car demolition derby sounds like a riot.
a) I had no idea those cardboard cutout fake IDs were really a thing! I thought it was just a funny gag from Vegas Vacation. How could they ever possibly fool someone?!
2) A DMV-themed party sounds hilarious, and I would love to attend an event like that!
Jason is in fact a character from Vegas Vacation he just doesn’t know it. Shhh don’t tell him!
Back when ID’s were laminated, it was a lot easier to make a passable fake ID. You make sure the background behind the head looks correct for a DMV, the typeset looks alright, it’s carefully cut, and then you put that thick layer of lamination to conceal problems.
Not going to hold up to close scrutiny, but a bouncer in a dingy, poorly lit bar would probably let you in if you weren’t an idiot.
Vermont used to print out driver’s licenses on a machine that left notable scanner artifacts in the photo and adjacent design, whether by accident or not. That was just about impossible to fake and as a sharp-eyed 20something cashier in a well-lit supermarket that was my go-to. Probably not something that would work under the bar conditions you have in mind though.
In a college town in the ’80s i just used a regular #2 pencil to change an 8 to a 6 over the lamination and it was enough for the bouncer to raise an eyebrow and roll his eyes as he let me in.
I used my brother’s Swedish library card without a picture but with a horrible fake accent. I pointed to the middle of the card # and said “Zat is my birth date”. I worked very well at my local college’s student union where nobody gave one single damn. Pitchers of Old Style flowed. Now I am ashamed. At the time I was positively giddy (and a usually tipsy).
In the ‘80s, many of us knew someone who worked at Blockbuster Video where they had a laminating machine…
Goes back a lot further than VV.