Decoder Ring | Truck Nutz (Encore)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Slow Burn – "Decoder Ring | Truck Nutz (Encore)"

Introduction

In this episode of Decoder Ring, hosted by Willa Paskin, the spotlight is on the quirky yet culturally significant phenomenon of Truck Nuts—plastic testicles affixed to the rear of pickup trucks. Initially deemed "icky and off-putting," Truck Nuts have evolved into a polarizing symbol intertwining humor, masculinity, and political undertones. This summary delves into the origins, cultural impact, and varied consumer motivations behind Truck Nuts, enriched with firsthand accounts and expert insights.

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1. Origins of Truck Nuts

Truck Nuts were conceptualized in 1997 by a then 22-year-old Jay Van Zant. Inspired by a late-night conversation in a hot tub about masculinity, Van Zant envisioned Truck Nuts as a humorous accessory to signify that a truck—and by extension, its owner—had "balls."

Jay Van Zant [02:14]: "We were talking about trucks and you know, the whole euphemism, you gotta have some balls to go do that. I was like, oh, mine has more balls than yours."

Despite lacking manufacturing experience, Van Zant was determined to bring his vision to life. He crafted a clay model and launched small-scale advertisements in national truck magazines alongside a dedicated 800 number, "866-HOT-NUTS."

Jay Van Zant [03:20]: "I created like a clay model out of child's clay... I knew, I just had this feeling that everybody else would think this was as funny as I did."

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2. Business Development and Transition

Truck Nuts swiftly gained popularity, with Van Zant reporting sales exceeding $300,000 annually at their peak. However, balancing a burgeoning family and a demanding job led Van Zant to sell the company in 2002 to Wilson Kemp, a retired college administrator from Florida.

Jay Van Zant [11:15]: "Look, it's time to grow up and, you know, do what others do... I'm going to sell nuts the rest of my life."

Under Kemp's ownership, Truck Nuts evolved into a broader product line under "trucknuts.com," featuring variations like Bulls Balls, You're Nuts, and Monster Truck Nuts. Despite an initial surge, sales tapered, stabilizing at a few hundred dollars monthly, predominantly driven through online platforms.

Jay Van Zant [12:51]: "Oh, I'm not selling but a few hundred dollars a month worth of these things now."

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3. Public Perception and Cultural Impact

Truck Nuts serve as more than mere novelty items; they embody a form of self-expression laden with humor and, inadvertently, political implications. While primarily associated with "funny rednecks," the accessories have sparked legislative debates across states like Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and South Carolina, addressing their appropriateness and offensive nature.

Willa Paskin [07:34]: "Truck nuts on the back of pickups have moved up inside the truck and jokes are a fitting response."

The backlash includes attempts to ban Truck Nuts for being offensive to children, culminating in legal actions such as the case in South Carolina where a grandmother was ticketed for her grandsons' display of Truck Nuts.

Willa Paskin [09:30]: "They're communicating to all of these people that whoever owns them is a jerk."

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4. Related Testicular Accessories

The phenomenon of Truck Nuts isn't isolated. Several other testicle-themed products have emerged, each with unique audiences and cultural connotations:

• Nudicles: Invented by Greg Miller in 1993, Nudicles are testicular implants for pets, catering to owners who wish to preserve their animals' appearance post-neutering.

  Greg Miller [20:05]: "Pets do know that they've been neutered, but it's, you know, basically pet owners wanting their male dog to maintain its God-given look."

• Bike Balls: Kickstarter-funded bicycle lights shaped like testicles, designed to enhance cyclist visibility while incorporating humor.

  Willa Paskin [23:14]: "It's evidence, if you needed it, that ball jokes and ball appreciation more generally cross the aisle."

• Gunsicles: Plastic testicles for firearms, intended as humorous gun accessories but often repurposed by consumers to mock gun enthusiasts.

  Anthony Melas [24:42]: "Sold a lot of Gunsicles because it found its audience... people mocking gun owners."

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5. Consumer Motivations: Humor and Satire

Contrary to initial assumptions, the core customer base for Truck Nuts often approaches them with a sense of irony and self-satire rather than genuine displays of machismo. Many purchasers use Truck Nuts as gag gifts or pranks, reflecting a broader trend of utilizing humor to comment on cultural stereotypes.

• Prankster Stories:

  Matt Zahn, a real estate agent from Michigan, shares his experiences using Truck Nuts in prank wars, highlighting their role in lighthearted mocking among friends.

  Willa Paskin [15:14]: "Matt and his friend are not outliers. Truck nuts, consumers, pranksters are part of the product's core constituency."

• Self-Ironization:

  Tyler Sherman, a 28-year-old from Maine, affirms his use of Truck Nuts purely for humor, distancing himself from any association with implied masculinity.

  Willa Paskin [29:14]: "Tyler is saying the things that I think most truck nutters do. That he doesn't take them that seriously, that he doesn't think it makes him that macho."

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6. Cultural and Political Implications

Truck Nuts transcend simple humor, acting as symbols within America's broader cultural and political landscape. They highlight the intersection of humor with notions of masculinity, political correctness, and cultural identity. The bipartisan appeal of testicular humor underscores a shared cultural shorthand that both unites and divides.

Colin Johnson [33:06]: "There's a kind of self-ironization going on here. The way someone might put truck nuts on their car to embody a stereotype."

Moreover, the use of Truck Nuts by diverse groups—from medical professionals using them for unconventional marketing to pranksters challenging societal norms—illustrates their multifaceted role in contemporary culture.

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7. Conclusion: Humor as a Unifying Force

Ultimately, Truck Nuts serve as a testament to the power of humor in bridging disparate cultural divides. Despite initial perceptions of being mere "douchey accessories," a deeper exploration reveals their role in self-satire, pranks, and the shared enjoyment of basic humor. This underscores a broader societal truth: humor, even in its most irreverent forms, possesses the potential to unite individuals across ideological spectra.

Willa Paskin [35:27]: "Truck nuts are not truck nuts. The object in question is humor itself... Truck nuts united us or united those people who are really tickled by extremely basic dick jokes."

As Paskin eloquently concludes, the real story behind Truck Nuts isn't about a controversy-laden accessory but about humor's enduring ability to connect and provoke laughter amidst cultural complexities.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jay Van Zant [03:20]: "I knew, I just had this feeling that everybody else would think this was as funny as I did."

• Willa Paskin [07:34]: "Truck nuts... jokes are a fitting response."

• Greg Miller [20:05]: "Pet owners wanting their male dog to maintain its God-given look."

• Tyler Sherman [29:38]: "If your truck's macho, you probably don't need to put a pair of nuts on the back of it."

• Colin Johnson [33:06]: "Self-ironization... embodying a stereotype."

• Willa Paskin [35:27]: "The object in question is humor itself."

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Final Thoughts

Decoder Ring's exploration of Truck Nuts reveals a nuanced narrative where humor intersects with cultural identity, challenging initial perceptions and highlighting the complex motivations behind seemingly simple accessories. This episode invites listeners to reconsider their assumptions and appreciate the layered meanings embedded in everyday symbols.

Transcript

[Willa Paskin]

This episode is brought to you by Choiceology, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Hosted by Katie Milkman, an award winning behavioral scientist and author of the best selling book how to Change. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind our decisions. Hear true stories from Nobel laureates, authors, athletes and everyday people about why we do the things we do. Listen to [e-mail] podcast or wherever you listen.

[Jay Van Zant]

If fashion is your thing, ebay is it. Ebay's where I find all my favorites. From handbags to iconic streetwear, all authenticated for real this time. A little supreme, some Gucci. I even have that vintage Prada on my watch list. That's why ebay's my go to for all my go tos. Yeah, ebay. The place for new pre loved vintage and rare fashion. Ebay people love.

[Willa Paskin]

Hi. So today we have an episode for you that we made back in 2019. There's no gentle way to say exactly what it's about, so I'm just gonna come right out with it. It is about Truck Nuts. Truck Nuts are plastic testicles that most often show up on the back of trucks as if to say, my truck has balls. And actually a whole lot of other things besides. I remember when this topic first came up, I was like, I don't know if we can do this. This is very icky and off putting and blue. But that's actually why it was a great subject. There is a lot going on when you steel yourself and look closely at the truck nut. And all of it is as relevant today as it was when we first made this episode. So please enjoy. Also, just a heads up before we begin that it contains some adult language. In 1997, Jay was sitting in a hot tub with some buddies when he had an epiphany.

[Jay Van Zant]

We were talking about trucks and you know, the whole euphemism, you gotta have some balls to go do that. I was like, oh, mine has more balls than yours. And as soon as I said it, I pictured it. For whatever reason, I guess I was drunk enough and it would not go away.

[Willa Paskin]

What Jay was picturing was a pair of plastic testicles that could hang from the back hitch of a pickup truck.

[Jay Van Zant]

My name is Jay Van Zant and I created Truck Nuts.

[Willa Paskin]

Jay is not the only person who came up with the idea for Truck Nuts at around this time, but he is the one who gave them their name, which is Truck Nuts with a Z at the end.

[Jay Van Zant]

Yeah, I kicked around bumper balls and things like that, but I was like, our Target market is not for anyone, but you know, basically funny rednecks, right? So it's got to say truck. You know, the nuts sounded great and the whole time I didn't want to be ultra gross, right? This was more about just pure comedy for the laugh of it. And so that's why I threw the Z in the name as well.

[Willa Paskin]

Jay was only 22 at the time and had no experience in manufacturing, but he was committed to making truck nuts a reality.

[Jay Van Zant]

I created like a clay model out of child's clay that you would buy at a hobby lobby or whatever and would sit on the back porch and, you know, shape them, file them down. But I knew, I just had this feeling that everybody else would think this was as funny as I did.

[Willa Paskin]

He put a small ad for them in the back of a bunch of national truck magazines.

[Jay Van Zant]

And then I also stood up an 800 number, 866 hot nuts. And so we put the ads in and that phone never stopped ringing. 866 Hot Nuts is blowing.

[Willa Paskin]

This is Decoder Ring. I'm Willa Paskin. Truck Nuts are a simple object, an injection molded piece of plastic that comes in bright colors and chrome. But they have permeated American culture as a polarizing signifier, a dick joke with political implications. At once a provocation of the pious and uptight and the douchey accessory of would be macho men. Before working on this episode, Truck nuts had always struck me as being at best ickily ridiculous and at worst, a painfully obvious expression of a kind of toxic, anxious masculinity. But learning about the people who make and buy truck nuts softened me on them. In order to explain how this happened, to explain how I came to not totally loathe the truck Nut, I want you to come with me on a journey through the weird world of testicle related novelty items in the hopes that when it's done, you too will see plastic testicles in a new light. So today on Decoder Ring, what's so funny about Truck Nuts? Foreign this new year, why not let Audible expand your life by listening explore over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and exclusive Audible originals that'll inspire and motivate you. I've been listening to Wesley Morris's energetic the Wonder of Stevie all about Stevie Wonder. And I'm sure there's something you'll like too. Just open the app and tap into your well being with advice and insight from leading influencers, experts and professionals. Whatever your focus or interest, there's a listen for it on Audible. You'll Find titles on health, relationships, career, finance, and so much more. Let Audible help you reach the goals you set for yourself. Start listening today when you sign up for a free 30 day trial at Audible. New members can try Audible now free for 30 days with your first audiobook included. Visit audible.com decoder or text decoder to 500 500. That's audible.com decoder or text Decoder to 500500 when you hear about truck nuts, it's usually because someone is joking about them. It is really freaking cold in the Midwest. It is so cold. Truck nuts on the back of pickups have moved up inside the truck and jokes are a fitting response. I mean, they're a pair of plastic balls. But the butt of most jokes about truck nuts isn't truck nuts themselves. It's the people who own them. Truck nutters have been made fun of by late night talk show hosts. This is Big Daddy Truck Nuts here. Come on back. I want every freight shaker, coal bucket and wiggle wagon out there to roll on. They've been parodied in songmates and they're the subject of countless pranks, jokes and skits.

[Jay Van Zant]

What's the big problem with them? Well, I'll tell you the problem. The problem is just because you want to make a buck, my 8 year old granddaughter has to look at big dangling cow balls every time I drive her to the fucking cracker barrel.

[Willa Paskin]

When you search truck nuts on Twitter, most of the tweets you come across aren't making fun of people who actually have truck nut, though there are some of those. They're making fun of the people they imagine have truck nuts. And that imagined person is basically always the same. A particularly tacky member of the white working class so threatened by so called PC culture, he has slapped a pair of brightly colored plastic balls onto his beloved truck to prove he's got real big ones while triggering the libs. Truck nuts don't just offend personal sensibilities, though, they've also managed to offend the authorities. Between 2007 and 2009, legislation was proposed in Maryland, Virginia and Florida by Republicans and Democrats to ban or fine the use of truck nuts because they were offensive to children. In 2011, in South Carolina, where there's a law against obscene bumper stickers, a grandmother was written a ticket for having truck nuts on her truck. It was actually her grandsons. In a case that's still slated to go before a jury, truck nuts then offend different kinds of people in different parts of the country for different reasons, all while Communicating to all of these people that whoever owns them is a jerk. And this sense of jerkiness, it comes from somewhere. I mean, what do you know about a guy with truck nuts except that he doesn't care or isn't worried about what anyone else thinks about the very controversial item he has affixed to the back of his vehicle? Here's a question you're driving down the road. Ellie Mistahl is the executive editor of above the law, a legal website. Back in 2007, while writing about the First Amendment issues surrounding the grandmother in South Carolina who was given a ticket, he got really interested in truck nuts.

[Jay Van Zant]

You're a bad driver. You're an asshole driver.

[Willa Paskin]

You cut people off, right? Yeah. You find yourself behind a truck nutter, do you cut them off? Definitely not.

[Jay Van Zant]

Or do you give them a wide berth?

[Willa Paskin]

Wide berth, right. It is a luxury.

[Jay Van Zant]

It is part of white privilege to be able to live in a world where you don't have to care about other people's feelings.

[Willa Paskin]

And that's, I think, one of the.

[Jay Van Zant]

Reasons why you don't see, at least in my research, a lot of black truck nutters.

[Willa Paskin]

Right.

[Jay Van Zant]

You don't see a lot of gay truck nutters. They don't have the luxury to pretend that the entire concept of political correctness or decency is a farce in a game.

[Willa Paskin]

This is part of the reason that truck nuts feel inherently provocative. But I wanted to figure out if there are reasons other than being provocative that someone might own these things. To answer that, I need to start by giving you a sense of the truck nuts landscape. The very earliest homemade versions of truck nuts seem to have appeared in the 1980s. But in the late 1990s, three commercial versions all popped up around the same time. In addition to truck nuts, the company started by Jay van Zant, there's bulls balls, which makes a product modeled on, well, bulls balls. And also the far more veiny variation offered up by the company, you're nuts, which also makes a monster truck nut. Here's an ad on YouTube for that very product.

[Jay Van Zant]

The monster truck nuts are approximately 16 inches in size and weigh just over a pound. They feature the veins on the top, which are synonymous with year nuts products.

[Willa Paskin]

In 2002, Jay Van Zant, the founder of trucknuts, who was working 60 to 80 hours a week at another job and a growing family, decided to sell his company.

[Jay Van Zant]

Look, it's time to grow up and, you know, do what others do, or it's, I'm going to sell nuts the rest of my life. And. And I Made that tough decision. Hey, let's get out now.

[Willa Paskin]

Though Jay was making money on Truck Nuts at the time, he didn't think it would last. Meanwhile, a man from Florida named Wilson Kemp had just retired from his job as a college administrator and he was looking for something to do with his free time.

[Jay Van Zant]

I saw this funky little business being advertised on ebay called Truck Nuts. We ended up striking up a deal and I bought it from it.

[Willa Paskin]

Wilson has owned Truck Nuts for the last 17 years. He and his wife run the whole operation themselves.

[Jay Van Zant]

Twelve years ago, for three years straight, I sold in excess of $300,000 a year worth of these things. And that's crazy.

[Willa Paskin]

Twelve years ago, around 2007, there were a number of other popular products that, like Chuck Nuts, seem to knowingly tease the rural white audience. That was also the product's target demo. The very successful blue collar comedy tour, which featured Larry the cable guy and Jeff Foxworthy, famous for his you might be a redneck jokes, had just wrapped up. Country music songs like redneck Woman, Redneck Yacht Club and hick town had recently been released. And trucker hats, a wild and weird cultural signifier in their own right, were enjoying a moment as the it accessory of the rich and famous. These products, like Truck Nuts could be seen as a funny, self deprecating way to celebrate an off maligned cultural identity. But Truck Nuts popularity didn't last.

[Jay Van Zant]

Oh, I'm not selling but a few hundred dollars a month worth of these things now.

[Willa Paskin]

Those sales are largely coming through Wilson's website, truck nuts.com, which has a joking but also a jingoistic and lascivious tone. In addition to selling Truck Nuts and biker balls, which are Truck Nuts for your motorcycle, the site sells a T shirt with a picture on it of a squirrel that has giant low hanging testicles. It sells bumper stickers with slogans like these colors don't run and hey bin Laden, lick my nuts. On another page they say they're running a contest quote, looking for 12 hot ladies to model for the Truck Nuts calendar. But it turns out Wilson's not exactly the type of guy his website is marketed towards. When you first saw the Truck Nuts, like what did you think of them?

[Jay Van Zant]

I thought it was humorous and that's the way we look at it. And we intended just some tongue in cheek humor.

[Willa Paskin]

Could you tell like what's funny about it?

[Jay Van Zant]

I assume it's like a macho thing. I think it's humorous that guys do that. Just like people flouting their tattoos or whatever it is they think That's a sign of macho. Or that's the reason people would put them on their trucks and parade them around.

[Willa Paskin]

So Wilson Kemp, the owner of Truck Nuts, thinks truck nuts are funny because anyone who would buy them to demonstrate how manly they are is hilarious. He's laughing at the sincere truck nutter. Do you have a truck nut on your car? Like, would you put them on your car?

[Jay Van Zant]

No, I don't.

[Willa Paskin]

Would you ever put them on your car?

[Jay Van Zant]

Probably not. I'm not ashamed of it or anything. I'm 85 years old.

[Willa Paskin]

Wilson's attitude towards truck nuts is easier to understand when you consider that most of his customers are not exactly sincere about truck nuts either. Don't get me wrong, some of them are insincere in a toxic way. Wilson was recently asked to send a pair of truck nuts to Senator Jeff Flake after Flake insisted there be an FBI investigation into Brett Kavanaugh. The message, unmistakably, being that Flake should grow a pair. But most of his orders come from people who. Who either think truck nuts are a bit of tongue in cheek, self lampooning, so funny they have to have them on their car or so ridiculous they absolutely do not want them on their car.

[Jay Van Zant]

A lot of my sales are from, let's say, somebody in an office somewhere saying, we want to give a gag gift.

[Willa Paskin]

Wilson's assessment of his audience is borne out by reviews of truck nuts on Amazon and Facebook, of which this is a representative example. The look, feel, and motion of these nuts hanging from my friend's truck made it look as though his wussy truck had a real set of nuts dangling from it. The only downside was that my prank ended up making him look more manly. Driving down the road would buy these nuts for a prank. Again, that sarcastic review was left by a real estate agent in Michigan named Matt Zahn.

[Jay Van Zant]

I'm involved in the prank war with a neighbor across the lake, and we've been kind of going back and forth doing pranks.

[Willa Paskin]

Matt's prank war has involved, among other things, wiring a fridge shot and drawing a giant penis on a lawn in the middle of the night.

[Jay Van Zant]

You know, I think it'd be pretty funny if I were to get some truck nuts and put them on his truck and see if he, you know, see how many days he would drive around town with them.

[Willa Paskin]

Hang in there. He's a loan officer, so he had to actually go to a client's house.

[Jay Van Zant]

And do a loan application that day. So he, like, pulled in their driveway.

[Willa Paskin]

They're, like, out There talking.

[Jay Van Zant]

And I'm sure the client saw them on the back of his truck.

[Willa Paskin]

So what's supposed to be funny about this prank is that if you saw Matt's friend driving down the street, you would think he was sincere about his truck nuts. You would assume that he was the type of guy who had truck nuts on his car because he wanted them there, even though he's not. Typically when you see somebody that has.

[Jay Van Zant]

Truck nuts, you're like, oh, that guy's guess probably a douchebag.

[Willa Paskin]

What about it communicates that someone who would really have it is a douchebag? I just think that if you have.

[Jay Van Zant]

A pair of nuts on your truck, I mean it's just a certain personality.

[Willa Paskin]

Type that would have that and not have it as a joke. Matt is not alone in thinking that the way he's using truck nuts poking fun at douchey rednecks basically is different from how they're meant to be used. An off brand usage of the product. But Matt and his friend are not outlier. Truck nuts, consumers, pranksters and jokers and people sending up the people who they think the product is supposed to be for are part of the product's core constituency. I was not expecting that going into this story. I was under the impression that truck nuts were still a thing because of people who were sincerely into truck nuts. But it was starting to look like truck nuts might still be a thing because of people who were insincerely into truck nuts. Was the unironic macho truck nutter real or was he a kind of figment of the imagination? The answer to that, it turns out, is a little bit of both. Who doesn't love the good things in life? Everyone enjoys a little luxury, but it's not always affordable. Except when it comes to Quince. Quince is the go to for luxury essentials at affordable prices. They have a great fisherman sweater that I've been wearing quite a lot. It's nice and thick, just the right thing. As winter turns into spring. And a pair of hoop gold earrings. Really simple. Wear them all the time. Quince offers a range of high quality items at prices within reach. Like 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters, washable silk tops and dresses and organic cotton sweaters. The best part, all Quince Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Give yourself the luxury you deserve with quince. Go to quince.com decoder for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com decoder to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com decoder. Your data is like gold to hackers. They're selling your passwords, bank details and private messages. Mac fee helps stop them. Secure VPN keeps your online activity private. AI powered text scam detector spots phishing attempts instantly. And with award winning antivirus, you get top tier hacker protection. Plus you'll get up to $2 million in identity theft coverage. All for just $39.99 for your first year. Visit McAfee.com, cancel anytime terms apply. As we were investigating Truck Nuts, we kept coming across other testicle based accessories. I was so flummoxed at this point about who Truck Nuts customer base was that I thought it might be clarifying to speak with some of these other companies in the hopes they could shed some light on this particular question. One product in particular stood out. It's been mocked almost as much as Truck Nuts. It's called Nudicles.

[Jay Van Zant]

Nudicles are testicular implants for dogs, cats, horses, bulls, any animal that is altered.

[Willa Paskin]

Greg Miller is the owner and inventor of Nudicles, of which over 500,000 have been sold.

[Jay Van Zant]

Nudicles were thought of in 1993 with the trauma that I went through neutering my bloodhound named Buck. Buck was a 187 pound bloodhound. It was a dominant feature of his, you know, being. And I was opposed to neutering because Buck would no longer be Buck.

[Willa Paskin]

I mean nudicles, it seems like it's really, it's for the owners, it's not really for the pets because they don't care, right?

[Jay Van Zant]

You bet they care. Pets do know that they've been neutered, but it's, you know, basically pet owners wanting their male dog to maintain its God given look. And what's wrong with that? I mean, if you don't like it, don't buy it.

[Willa Paskin]

Whether or not the animals actually know or care about their testicles is not something I'm going to get into. But the question what's wrong with that? Is it the heart? Not just of Nudicles, but of Truck Nuts too. And my most easygoing, open minded self thinks, sure, that's right, if you don't like them, just don't buy them. But my instinctual reaction is just like, can we not be so hung up on balls? Masculinity really has pride of place in our culture. Can we leave the dog balls out of it? But Greg doesn't just make replacement testicles he also makes some other cosmetic products, including replacement ears and eyes.

[Jay Van Zant]

Ear implants are eyes. Not a word in the world has ever been said, but nudicles will just bring out the craziness in people. It's encouraging people to neuter that would not neuter before, thus reducing pet overpopulation.

[Willa Paskin]

This made me wonder, am I being super uptight about testicles? I wouldn't begrudge someone replacing their dog's mangled ear or eye, even if it wasn't medically necessary. So what's my issue with this particular body part? I like to think my feelings about nudicles are a reflection of my values, but maybe they're also just a reflection of my taste.

[Jay Van Zant]

Humphrey, my bulldog, you know, he's got nudicles. And I mean, you know, nothing is cuter than seeing him, you know, waddle up the street with his little thingies in between. And the idea of neutering him and eliminating that is just, you know, it's unthinkable.

[Willa Paskin]

Well, that's actually so funny, right? Because what I was gonna say is like, instead of thinking it's cute every time I see a dog with just waddling along with their testicles and was like, that looks so nasty. Yeah, they're just really in your face. But you obviously feel justified.

[Jay Van Zant]

Depends on your attitude toward the product. And I mean, I'll admit nudicles are as controversial as religion and politics.

[Willa Paskin]

Nudicles are just acknowledging a reality that some people really care about balls. And that's true across the political spectrum. As a second product on our tour of testicle related accessories, bike balls demonstrates. Bike balls are Kickstarter funded bicycle lights in the shape of testicles. They give off a pink light and hang low from just underneath a bike seat right below where a male cyclist genitals would rest.

[Jay Van Zant]

The whole idea is like, it takes lit grit and balls to ride on the roads.

[Willa Paskin]

Heather Lam is an industrial designer based in Toronto who is one of the co creators of bike balls.

[Jay Van Zant]

It reminds other drivers that you are human too, because part of your flesh is.

[Willa Paskin]

Cyclists and pickup truck drivers are imagined to be a very different demographic, politically speaking. But apparently some members of both groups would like to trick out their ride with a pair of nuts. Though bike balls are not gilding the lily the way that truck nuts are. They're not trying to make the most powerful vehicle on the road seem even more macho. They are evidence, if you needed it, that ball jokes and ball appreciation more generally cross the aisle.

[Jay Van Zant]

I've heard people tend to yell nice balls. That means that they've seen you. So the bike light is keeping you safe and you're getting a compliment, I guess.

[Willa Paskin]

The bipartisan nature of testicle related accessories was further underscored to me by the conversation I had about the most provocative accessory of all. Gunsticles. Plastic testicles that clip onto the barrel of a gun. I reached out to Gunsicles via the company's Facebook page. I was pretty sure no one was going to respond to me. Slate has written a lot about the need for gun control, and a reputation as a liberal site made me assume they would be very reticent to speak with us. And to my surprise, the owner, Anthony Melas wrote back saying, no worries on political orientation. Lol. Gunstickles have a wacky audience.

[Jay Van Zant]

My initial vision for the product was this is something that gun owners will buy kind of as a goof to make their friends laugh at the range. And so the packaging and most of the marketing is geared towards mimics a gun accessory like a serious gun accessory.

[Willa Paskin]

The Guns schools marketing features an animated sporty woman who smiles while holding a gun. And it has a tagline, the pants down leader in tactical testicles. The product was officially released in 2017.

[Jay Van Zant]

It did get some, some play in the gun, you know, bl August Fear and I had some immediately success that I thought, oh, wow, this is incredible. You know, so like, you know, you wake up to like 50 orders for them and you're like, oh, I can retire now.

[Willa Paskin]

But after that first burst, sales slowed down. Anthony found it was hard to market the product. Magazine advertising was too expensive. Sporting goods stores were turned off by the whole testicle thing and it wasn't getting much traction on Amazon. He was getting ready to abandon the whole thing. And then this past Christmas happened.

[Jay Van Zant]

Sold a lot of gunsicles. It's because it found its audience and its audience is not gun owners. It is people mocking gun owners. It's for the person that knows a gun owning person that wants to make fun of them. You know, I tell people also that like 5% of guns tickles will ever be on a gun. You know, maybe 10% of gunsicles will ever leave the box, you know, so it has found its audience as a novelty gift.

[Willa Paskin]

So despite a appearing to be a company that appeals to people who love guns, gunsicles is still in business because of people who want to tease people who love guns. Its customers are not the people that it's marketed towards. It's the people ribbing the people it's marketed towards. But unless you talk with Anthony, there's no way to know this. The Gunsicles website is completely, convincingly serious and looking this way, it actually helps them sell. Gunsicles and Truck Nuts are not exactly the same. For one thing, truck owners, unlike gun owners, already have a long history of affixing provocative, feisty, rude, crude, joking items like bumper stickers and mud flaps onto their trucks. And unlike Gunsicles, when Truck Nuts were first on the market, they were a big hit with their target demo, the quote funny rednecks that Truck Nuts were originally conceived for. But Gunsicles still feel like a kind of Rosetta Stone for Truck Nuts to me, an object that makes sense of what our reporting about Truck Nuts had already told us. The Truck Nuts are at this point largely a novelty item, and that the people keeping Truck Nuts in business are just as likely to be buying them as a gag gift than they are to be putting them on the back of their truck Are your ulcerative colitis symptoms proving difficult to manage? Tremfiab can help you manage the cycle of UC symptoms. At one year, many patients taking Tremphya achieved clinical remission and some patients also achieved endoscopic remission. Individual results may vary. Tremphya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections may occur. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu like symptoms or if you need a vaccine. Ask your doctor if Tremphaya can help you manage the cycle of UC symptoms. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit tremphyaradio.com Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life At Capella University. Our game changing flexpath learning format lets you set your own deadline so you can learn at a time and pace that works for you. It's an education you can tailor to your schedule. That means you don't have to put your life on hold to pursue your professional goals. Instead, enjoy learning your way and earn your degree without missing a beat. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn [e-mail] okay, so now that we have all of this context for Truck Nuts, I want to talk about another kind of truck nutter. The kind who actually puts Truck Nuts on his truck by choice.

[Jay Van Zant]

I got them as a gift years ago, so they've been on my vehicle for eight years now.

[Willa Paskin]

Tyler Sherman is a 28 year old from Maine. He's got a green pickup Truck named Helga and her truck nuts are green to match.

[Jay Van Zant]

I always just get a good chuckle out of them. I mean, back when I was in high school, I used to see him a lot, and I always got a good laugh out of them when I saw him. I kind of revel in the trashiness of it. I think that's part of the humor of it. But, like, I'll come to a stop at a stoplight, and I'll just hear something clanging around in the back, and then I'll remember they're there, and I'll get a little chuckle to myself about it.

[Willa Paskin]

Is it only a joke for you, or do you think there's something macho about it? Kind of.

[Jay Van Zant]

No, I think it's. I think it's purely a joke. For my part, I feel like if. If your truck's macho, you probably don't need to put a pair of nuts on the back of it. I mean, I guess some people might think they're impressive, but I. I feel that I. Yeah, I didn't see him. Anybody could be intimidated by a pair of plastic bowl. I don't know how you could take that seriously.

[Willa Paskin]

Tyler is saying the things that I think most truck nutters do. That he doesn't take them that seriously, that he doesn't think it makes him that macho. They are super trashy, and that's part of what's funny about them. In fact, Tyler sounds pretty similar to that prankster we spoke with earlier, Matt Zahn. They're both guys who think truck nuts are kind of douchey and trashy. Tyler, like, Matt, makes his truck nut sound kind of like a private joke that he laughs about when he's by himself giggling in the cab of his truck. But the thing about truck nuts is they're not a private joke. They're not a pair of plastic balls you have, like, in a room in your house where only your friends can see them, Friends with whom you share a sense of humor and sensibility. They're a public joke, something that you take out into the world. Does anybody ever have a strong negative reaction to them?

[Jay Van Zant]

No. No one's ever said anything to me about it. But I'm a pretty big guy, too, so maybe they wouldn't.

[Willa Paskin]

When you see a pair of truck nuts on the road, you can't tell exactly what the driver is trying to say with them. I think that if I saw Tyler's car without ever having talked to Tyler, if I saw a green pickup with truck nuts driven by a big white guy, with some stickers on the back for extreme sports and the nra, which Tyler's truck has, I would, as suggested earlier in this episode, give the truck a wide berth. As far as car accessories go, truck nuts are just one signifier among many. And these signifiers, bumper stickers, flags, mud flaps, to say nothing of the make and model of the car itself, can amplify and reinforce each other to convey a clear political message. But it's worth keeping in mind that compared to many other such signifiers, truck nuts in and of themselves are relatively ambiguous. Here's Ellie Mistahl, the executive editor of above the Law. Again, I don't want to get too philosophical with it, but let's get philosophical with it.

[Jay Van Zant]

The truck nutter, when you see them.

[Willa Paskin]

Are driving away from you, right, they're moving. It's the kind of opposite of coming at you, right? You don't see them when they're coming at you. You only see the nuts when the.

[Jay Van Zant]

Vehicle is moving past you.

[Willa Paskin]

Right? A benutted truck is just.

[Jay Van Zant]

Is not kind of aggressively messing with your life.

[Willa Paskin]

It's a symbol. But it's.

[Jay Van Zant]

But, but that's what I'm saying.

[Willa Paskin]

It's a, it's a.

[Jay Van Zant]

It's more symbolic of a person trying to have some fun with you kind of at your expense as opposed to.

[Willa Paskin]

Really kind of aggressively getting in your.

[Jay Van Zant]

Face and like ruining your life.

[Willa Paskin]

It's also worth keeping in mind something I touched on earlier in this episode about how whatever else they are, truck nuts are also a way for rural white Americans to send up what other people already think about them. I want to go back to something Tyler said.

[Jay Van Zant]

I kind of revel in the trashiness of it. I think that's part of the humor of it.

[Willa Paskin]

There's a kind of self ironization going on here. The way someone might put truck nuts on their car to embody a stereotype, to revel in it, to be the trashy person everyone already assumes that you are. You can see this type of self satire in lots of other contexts.

[Jay Van Zant]

The things that I actually think about when phenomena like this arise are things like camp and kitsch that come out of stuff like gay and lesbian culture.

[Willa Paskin]

Colin Johnson is an associate professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Indiana University.

[Jay Van Zant]

Part of it is like when I think of like gay men, like fetishizing Judy Garland and you know, people putting testicles on their cars. They're very different things, you know, on the surface, but they are kind of our stories about, you know, like cosmic unfairness or sort of the Predictable unfairness of, you know, the sort of the underdog position.

[Willa Paskin]

Like leaning into Judy Garland is like leaning into truck nuts.

[Jay Van Zant]

Like, if everybody already thinks you're kind of vulgar and trashy and tasteless, then why not just go whole hog, you know, and kind of like, you know, and be a kind of campy send up of that yourself, like kind of take control of it.

[Willa Paskin]

Colin's not saying rural white guys with truck nuts are discriminated against minority, but he is saying that they too are self aware. Self awareness is a big part of the most delightful and genuinely funny use of truck nuts that I came across while reporting this story. It was a pair of pink truck nuts dangling from the rear of a black matte pickup which had written on the back in bright green lettering, austin vasectomy.

[Jay Van Zant]

I hope nobody in Austin is offended by it. But we thought it was funny and it also grabbed attention.

[Willa Paskin]

Donna McBride drives the truck and works for NAU Urology Specialists, an Austin based medical practice devoted to men's health.

[Jay Van Zant]

I think a lot of the misconception about vasectomies is that the balls are cut off. And I've heard that on reality shows and it drives me crazy.

[Willa Paskin]

NAU Urology specialists know all the jokes and anxieties that people have about vasectomies and they're using truck nuts to counter them. They're using balls to make people worry less about their balls.

[Jay Van Zant]

And we have had a lot of people call and say, I'm sitting behind this truck. It says, Austin vasectomy.com call now. So I'm calling now because I want a vasectomy. So it's surprisingly good marketing.

[Willa Paskin]

So here we are at the end of our journey through the testicular accessory landscape. And I want to be clear, I'm not saying there aren't men out there who are completely serious about their truck nuts. Men who hew to the stereotype, who have regressive politics and want to intimidate and provoke people who aren't like them. Here's J. Van Zant, the original owner of truck Nuts.

[Jay Van Zant]

Again, the whole fuck you guy. He did exist. I met him, right? Met him several times through owning it.

[Willa Paskin]

But I think we could stand to expand our understanding of truck nutters to admit a wider range of motivations for owning them. Motivations that include novelty and gag gifting, jokes and pranks, self satire and a thoughtlessness that's not quite the same as malice. And doing this isn't just for the truck nutter, it's for everyone else too, who should take some Comfort in the fact that in this specific instance anyway, we aren't actually sharing the country with a bunch of horrifying, crass stereotypes, just other people. When we started working on this story, I thought it was going to be a story about a culture war object, something that people on different side of America's political divide saw completely differently. And it is a story about a culture war object. But the object in question is not truck nuts. The object is humor itself. Truck nuts make some people laugh, but the people who find them gross or crass or stupid or the bleeding edge of all sorts of odious ideological positions don't quite believe that anyone could be buying truck nuts as just a joke. We imagine that they are, on some level, sincere, and this makes us laugh. Meanwhile, truck nutters think people who don't find truck nuts funny, who don't get why they're funny, who don't see the irony in them, are uptight, and they, in turn get a kick out of that. What people actually find funny about truck nuts, then, has very little to do with them being a pair of balls and everything to do with them being apparent evidence that other Americans have a bad sense of humor. What you're seeing happen with truck nuts is like what happens to an unhappy couple that ends up fighting about the same thing, no matter what the cause. In this case, the cause is a pair of plastic testicles. But the fight devolves into what it always does. Everyone talking past each other and projecting the worst things onto the other side, including the idea that the other side isn't funny at all. A shared sense of humor, of course, is a really important thing to a functioning relationship. Without one, there's no pressure released. There's just endless conflict. And that's pretty much where we are right now about things way more important than truck nuts. What's crazy about this fight in particular is that Americans of every political persuasion find balls funny. Instead of being something that divides us, I can imagine a world in which truck nuts united us or united those people who are really tickled by extremely basic dick jokes, because that's the world we're actually living in, A world in which truck nut's customer base is surprisingly bipartisan. This is decoder ring. I'm Willa Paskin. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email [e-mail] and you can also call us now at our new decoder ring phone number. That is 347-460-7281. And we're actually still getting calls and messages about our episode on the 90s swing craze and the Gap khakis commercial that helped break it onto the charts. So I want to recommend the two part I'd like to Teach the World to Buy edition of Slate's podcast Hit Parade that goes deep into the history of commercials like the Gap ad that have turned jingles into pop hits. This episode was written by me and produced and edited by Benjamin. Decoder Ring is produced by me, Katie Shepard and Max Friedman. Evan Chung is our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is our technical director. Thanks to Zachary Blair, Tony Ascenda, Dan Peralt, Barbara Ching, Scott Biscoff, Franco Futa, Selena Ayala, Phil Edwards, Mack Lamoreaux, Christina Cauterucci, Forrest Wickman, Jennifer Esperanza, Cleo Levin, June Thomas, and everyone else who gave us help and feedback. If you aren't already a Slate plus member, you can subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking Try Free at the top of the Decoder Ring show page or visit slate.comdecoder/ to get access. Wherever you listen, Slate+ members get to listen to our show and every other Slate podcast without any ads, and you'll get unlimited access to Slate's website. Again, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts by clicking Try free or visit slate.comdecoderplus to sign up. Thanks for listening. We'll see you in two weeks. I'm Leon Nayfak and I'm the host of Slow Burn Watergate. Before I started working on this show, I Everything I knew about Watergate came from the movie all the President's Men.

[Jay Van Zant]

Do you remember how it ends?

[Willa Paskin]

Woodward and Bernstein are sitting at their typewriters, clacking away.

[Jay Van Zant]

And then there's this rapid montage of.

[Willa Paskin]

Newspaper stories about campaign aides and White House officials getting convicted of crimes, about audio tapes coming out that prove Nixon's involvement in the COVID up. The last story we see is Nixon resigns. It takes a little over a minute in the movie. In real life, it took about two years.

[Jay Van Zant]

Five men were arrested early Saturday while trying to install eavesdropping equipment.

[Willa Paskin]

It's known as the Watergate Incident. What was it like to experience those.

[Jay Van Zant]

Two years in real time?

[Willa Paskin]

What were people thinking and feeling as the break in at Democratic Party headquarters went from a weird little caper to a constitutional crisis that brought down the President. The downfall of Richard Nixon was stranger, wilder, and more exciting than you can imagine. Over the course of eight episodes, this show is going to capture what it was like to live through the greatest political scandal of the 20th century. With today's headlines once again full of corruption, collusion and dirty tricks, it's time for another look at the gate that started it all. Subscribe to Slow Burn now, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jay Van Zant]

Hi, I'm Josh Levine. My podcast, the Queen tells the story of Linda Taylor. She was a con artist, a kidnapper.

[Willa Paskin]

And maybe even a murderer.

[Jay Van Zant]

She was also given the title the Welfare Queen, and her story was used by Ronald Reagan to justify slashing aid to the poor. Now it's time to hear her real story. Over the course of four episodes, you'll find out what was done to Linda Taylor, what she did to others, and what was done in her name.

[Willa Paskin]

The great lesson of this for me is, is that people will come to their own conclusions based on what their prejudices are.

[Jay Van Zant]

Subscribe to the Queen on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening right now.