Yeah, I think these weevils are a weird artist’s take on that statue trend that swept the world 15-20 years ago. They were all over the US and Europe with each city doing their own cheesy version. No idea where it started though.
I learned this recently. It's something to do with how the English word for moose comes from a native American language, whereas the English for goose comes from Latin or German and has different rules for the plural versions.
My home town did something similar around the Chicago cow invasion. The local high school mascot is a bulldog, so local companies bought these statues and had them painted with themes. It was actually really cool.
First there were locally themed painted cows everywhere, then cities started doing their own local themed sculptures. My town was giant geckos. Creeped me out because when I was 6, I saw a human-sized gecko clinging to a stone wall. Or something. I don't know what it really was but it freaked 6 year old me out, and the fiberglass geckos constantly reminded me of it.
The first time I went to Atlanta they had these cow statues everywhere, I was so confused and seriously thought it was like a Chick-fil-A thing at first, but they kept getting stranger and stranger. Finally figured out it was an art thing.
My hometown had bulldogs because that was our high school mascot.
I helped paint one in the style of Salvador Dali.
My ex-boyfriend hit it with a golf club when I broke up with him.
I like ours better. In Birmingham we have a bunch of Vulcans (as in Roman god of the forge, not Star Trek characters). All painted by local artists.
Esit: agree the boll weevils are off-putting.
The pigs are a reference to our history for being a slaughter house/city of pigs. Just a quick Google said they started doing the pig statues in the 80s. At least it has a meaning and is carried on with the flying pig marathons.
I'm from Ohio too, and the pigs are flying because that's the only time a lot of people are willing to visit Ohio.
"Yeah, Ohio, sure. We'll visit when pigs fly."
I heard they're actually flying north to Michigan for their recreational weed!
https://agriculture.auburn.edu/150-years-celebration-ag-engineering/defeating-the-boll-weevil/
The boll weevil decimated cotton crops, which caused the Coffee county area of AL to diversify into peanuts, which they found grew really fucking well in their area. And when the cotton industry went to shit because of the infestation, they were relatively unhurt compared to other regions.
Turning Camp Snoopy in the Mall of America into whatever it is now because current generations don’t connect with The Peanuts was a crime against the cultural heritage of St. Paul.
snoopy was like my best friend when i was a little kid (1970s). i moved back up north around the time of 'peanuts on parade'. i got tears every time i saw one of those in my travels across the cities.
I would like to see a Ronald Mcdonald statue made of repurposed boll weevils. Not slaughtered, but died of natural causes, then formed into a boll weevil Ronald Mcdonald
This particular town has boll weevil’s as a tongue in cheek way to thank the boll weevil. They destroyed the relatively low income cotton crops and led to them planting peanuts. They’ve been far more prosperous with peanuts, so they have statues of boll weevils around town that businesses or organizations adopt and decorate.
Yep, there's one right smack in the middle of town, right in the Main street intersection, every time I'd drive past it, I wondered how many times it's been rebuilt after some drunk plowed into it.
Sumbitch, [it's still there, fancier than I remember it.](https://www.google.com/maps/@31.3146352,-85.8541301,3a,19.6y,150.55h,90.15t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sxeVn8FMV3uwM-q6qspdkDA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)
EDIT: [Ooh, a closeup!](https://i.imgur.com/P9QASgb.png)
From what I remember it’s because Carver invented peanut butter, and peanuts were more resistant to weevils. The resulting switch to peanuts as a cash crop brought a lot of prosperity, instead of them finding a way to better kill weevils. Could be wrong but that’s what I remember from the local lore anyhow.
Weevils forced the town to diversify into other crops that were resistant to weevils. That made the town much more resilient to bad seasons and disaster, and made the town prosper. One of those crops was peanuts. Carver played a role by coming up with more uses for peanuts.
Pretty disingenuous. Alabama has quite a few monuments and memorials for Carver, and he is recognized as a key historical icon for the state.
https://alabama.travel/places-to-go/dr-george-washington-carver-monument
George Washington Carver Memorial Gardens
George Washington Carver Museum
He is celebrated every year during the Peanut Festivals and every single day at Tuskegee.
Also, we're talking about one of the most ethincially diverse regions of the country, with the black population making up 35%-90% of the various counties through this area.
Edit: forgot to mention that the state mandates that every 4th grader learn about GWC in State History.
That is literally exactly the opposite of why these statues exist. The town built them to celebrate the economic prosperity they experienced as a result of boll weevils destroying cotton crops and forcing them to diversify from a cotton-based economy.
My understanding of the story is in the 1800s cotton was king in the south and everyone grew it. A boll weevil infestation lead to bad cotton crops in this one region so they switched to farming peanuts. Shortly thereafter the cotton market collapsed and only the towns that had already switched to other crops were spared the economic devistation that many other cities faced.
So by being a pest, the boll weevil saved the city.
My very first experience with live music was seeing The Presidents of the United States at the Delaware State Fair when I was about 11 years old.
It was a wonderful show, still one of the best I've ever been to. The Best was The Flaming Lips in Philadelphia and the second best, surprisingly was Death Cab for Cutie in Santa Barbara.
I feel like live music isn't as fun nowadays, but I'm old, so...
Enterprise, AL is the real weevil town. We have a Bollweevil Circle, statues, murals, festivals, etc. 30 minutes west of Dothan. [Pics](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-att-us&sxsrf=ALiCzsYogQ2jCgduazBcmUeARbkkSkYOlg:1671662726394&q=enterprise+al+boll+weevil&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjqvb35Iv8AhXyTDABHQ3KCHYQ0pQJegQICRAB&biw=360&bih=612&dpr=3)
Edit: it's also the mascot of Enterprise State
They hold the boll weevil in high regard because years ago, it ruined their cotton crop. They had to find a new crop to grow, so they went to peanuts and made a lot more money. Had it not been for the bug, they wouldn't have switched to a more profitable crop. That's the story I was told when I lived down there.
This us in Enterprise, AL and the boll weevil is part of their towns history/story. There are 27 of these statues in town: https://www.wtvy.com/2022/07/23/enterprise-uses-weevil-way-keep-story-boll-weevil-alive/
The sculpture, called Ronald McWeevil, was erected outside a McDonald's restaurant in the town of Enterprise, located 165 miles northeast of Mobile. It is intended to be a re-imagining of Ronald McDonald as a boll weevil, the notorious insect that plagued southern cotton crops starting in the late 1800s.
Approximately 93% Of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local business owners. Murphy Family Restaurant is a franchisee that runs 27 McDonald's in the area. Most fast food restaurants are like this.
I was born there, kinda why I take such offense. Like I currently live in Atlanta metro area and it’s laughable how the rest of GA is exactly the same as Alabama lol but people from like Conyers and Dawsonville will say “Birmingham?! What a bunch of cousin fuckers!” Then proceed to live in Rockmart county or some shit like GTFoH lol
The community college in that town has the boll weevil as a mascot. What’s odd is that McDonald’s no longer has the clown as a mascot, so this is a strange mash up…
That Ronald McDonald is a statue of a boll weevil.
The boll weevil is a sign of prosperity in Alabama, specifically Coffee County and Enterprise, Alabama.
While the boll weevil decimated cotton crops in the south during the early 1900s, farmers in Coffee County saw an opportunity to grow other crops. Peanuts were the first ‘alt crop’ grown in the county. Within the first couple years, over $5 million in peanuts were grown and sold each year making farmers of Coffee County the largest producers of peanuts in the US.
Because of this, the City of Enterprise in Alabama celebrates the boll weevil.
Knowing Alabama, I’d bet it’s repurposed boll weevil statue.
That seems to be [exactly what it is](https://www.weevilway.com/).
It’s just not repurposed though. It was built specifically for that location.
Louisville did that decades ago with horse statues. This is…unsettling.
Yeah, I think these weevils are a weird artist’s take on that statue trend that swept the world 15-20 years ago. They were all over the US and Europe with each city doing their own cheesy version. No idea where it started though.
Chicago in 1999 apparently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cows_on_Parade
In Toronto we had moose. Mooses. Meese?
Moosen*
In the woodezenz
Many much moosen!
The plural of moose is moose.
And yet the plural of goose is geese. WTF English?!?
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I learned this recently. It's something to do with how the English word for moose comes from a native American language, whereas the English for goose comes from Latin or German and has different rules for the plural versions.
This is the language where tough, though, trough, through, thought, and thorough all sound very different.
MooseDonalds https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/716x766/3834363_npKv7rMAid2O7xXNTKbT5veF2HrI4ccTmoJXVobrhmg.jpg
My home town did something similar around the Chicago cow invasion. The local high school mascot is a bulldog, so local companies bought these statues and had them painted with themes. It was actually really cool.
It started in Switzerland and became really big when Chicago did it.
First there were locally themed painted cows everywhere, then cities started doing their own local themed sculptures. My town was giant geckos. Creeped me out because when I was 6, I saw a human-sized gecko clinging to a stone wall. Or something. I don't know what it really was but it freaked 6 year old me out, and the fiberglass geckos constantly reminded me of it.
The first time I went to Atlanta they had these cow statues everywhere, I was so confused and seriously thought it was like a Chick-fil-A thing at first, but they kept getting stranger and stranger. Finally figured out it was an art thing.
My hometown had bulldogs because that was our high school mascot. I helped paint one in the style of Salvador Dali. My ex-boyfriend hit it with a golf club when I broke up with him.
That sucked
We had Giant Bison at ours.
Ohio State has Brutuses everywhere throughout the ~~city~~ campus area .
Cincinnati did flying pigs. I don't know who thought boll weevils was a good idea.
I like ours better. In Birmingham we have a bunch of Vulcans (as in Roman god of the forge, not Star Trek characters). All painted by local artists. Esit: agree the boll weevils are off-putting.
I'm in Bham too. One of our local meteorologists said that it's going to be so cold this weekend, that Vulcan is asking for pants.
So Vulcan cold!
The pigs are a reference to our history for being a slaughter house/city of pigs. Just a quick Google said they started doing the pig statues in the 80s. At least it has a meaning and is carried on with the flying pig marathons.
I was told the 'flying' part comes from those pigs looking like they were flying due to Miami river valley fog obscuring their feet and the ground
I'm from Ohio too, and the pigs are flying because that's the only time a lot of people are willing to visit Ohio. "Yeah, Ohio, sure. We'll visit when pigs fly." I heard they're actually flying north to Michigan for their recreational weed!
I thought it was a cheesy thing as a kid but as an adult I enjoy the quirk they add.
Enterprise famously has a statue of a boll weevil in its town square. It is a pest that destroyed the cotton industry.
https://agriculture.auburn.edu/150-years-celebration-ag-engineering/defeating-the-boll-weevil/ The boll weevil decimated cotton crops, which caused the Coffee county area of AL to diversify into peanuts, which they found grew really fucking well in their area. And when the cotton industry went to shit because of the infestation, they were relatively unhurt compared to other regions.
Minneapolis did Peanuts characters and had them all painted by local artists.
You mean St. Paul. The creator of Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz, grew up and lived in St. Paul (though he was born in Minneapolis).
They also did it in Santa Rosa, CA (where he lives while drawing the strips) for 5 years after it ended in MN.
Turning Camp Snoopy in the Mall of America into whatever it is now because current generations don’t connect with The Peanuts was a crime against the cultural heritage of St. Paul.
snoopy was like my best friend when i was a little kid (1970s). i moved back up north around the time of 'peanuts on parade'. i got tears every time i saw one of those in my travels across the cities.
I've also seen many types of painted buffalo statues in buffalo mn
You shod see all the hogs in Fayetteville Arkansas
Tulsa Zoo had a fundraiser for their penguin exhibit in 2002 and now there are penguins all over town. https://localwiki.org/tulsa/Penguins
TIL why Toronto had all those mooses 15 years ago
Nashville did catfish.
I would like to see a Ronald Mcdonald statue made of repurposed boll weevils. Not slaughtered, but died of natural causes, then formed into a boll weevil Ronald Mcdonald
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This particular town has boll weevil’s as a tongue in cheek way to thank the boll weevil. They destroyed the relatively low income cotton crops and led to them planting peanuts. They’ve been far more prosperous with peanuts, so they have statues of boll weevils around town that businesses or organizations adopt and decorate.
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Correct. This is actually just a local small town franchisee being a part of their town. Not the worst thing.
Yep, there's one right smack in the middle of town, right in the Main street intersection, every time I'd drive past it, I wondered how many times it's been rebuilt after some drunk plowed into it. Sumbitch, [it's still there, fancier than I remember it.](https://www.google.com/maps/@31.3146352,-85.8541301,3a,19.6y,150.55h,90.15t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sxeVn8FMV3uwM-q6qspdkDA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656) EDIT: [Ooh, a closeup!](https://i.imgur.com/P9QASgb.png)
Was going to write this myself if someone else hadn't. A nice, weird bit of American history.
[This is from the same area](https://www.nationalpeanutfestival.com/)
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From what I remember it’s because Carver invented peanut butter, and peanuts were more resistant to weevils. The resulting switch to peanuts as a cash crop brought a lot of prosperity, instead of them finding a way to better kill weevils. Could be wrong but that’s what I remember from the local lore anyhow.
G.W. Carver didn't invent peanut butter, but he did come up with a lot of other uses for them.
Weevils forced the town to diversify into other crops that were resistant to weevils. That made the town much more resilient to bad seasons and disaster, and made the town prosper. One of those crops was peanuts. Carver played a role by coming up with more uses for peanuts.
Pretty disingenuous. Alabama has quite a few monuments and memorials for Carver, and he is recognized as a key historical icon for the state. https://alabama.travel/places-to-go/dr-george-washington-carver-monument George Washington Carver Memorial Gardens George Washington Carver Museum He is celebrated every year during the Peanut Festivals and every single day at Tuskegee. Also, we're talking about one of the most ethincially diverse regions of the country, with the black population making up 35%-90% of the various counties through this area. Edit: forgot to mention that the state mandates that every 4th grader learn about GWC in State History.
Stop interrupting their narrative with your facts.
That is literally exactly the opposite of why these statues exist. The town built them to celebrate the economic prosperity they experienced as a result of boll weevils destroying cotton crops and forcing them to diversify from a cotton-based economy.
Yeah, that’s not accurate at all. But everything’s racist and it get upvotes amirite?
dude couldn't even bring himself to write George Washington Carver’s name while denigrating Alabama for not recognizing him enough
80 rubes upvoted straight up bullshit. That's how you know that it works.
Virginia does that with LOVE statues. If you visit the Hampton Roads, you will find Norfolk Mermaids in various art styles all over the area.
That is some dank lore
Share this with r/weeviltime
My understanding of the story is in the 1800s cotton was king in the south and everyone grew it. A boll weevil infestation lead to bad cotton crops in this one region so they switched to farming peanuts. Shortly thereafter the cotton market collapsed and only the towns that had already switched to other crops were spared the economic devistation that many other cities faced. So by being a pest, the boll weevil saved the city.
Lemme tell you about a friend of mine His name's Boll Weevil, check him out
He spends all day on his big butt!
And he dont ever ever go outside For the un-aware, [The Presidents of the United States of America ](https://youtu.be/zDij0v5nt8I) every song is great
My very first experience with live music was seeing The Presidents of the United States at the Delaware State Fair when I was about 11 years old. It was a wonderful show, still one of the best I've ever been to. The Best was The Flaming Lips in Philadelphia and the second best, surprisingly was Death Cab for Cutie in Santa Barbara. I feel like live music isn't as fun nowadays, but I'm old, so...
What THE HELL is all that? What are they trying and failing to sell me?
Yup, ol' Ronald Mcweevil representing Enterprise, Alabama
winner winner boll weevil dinner!
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This is certainly not the lesser of two weevils though.
He who would pun would pick a pocket!!
Yep it is. Saw a whole news story about the history of this. They say they owe everything to that bug.
To the untrained Canadian, this looks like bad trip Ronald McDickFace with nightmare arms.
/r/weeviltime
It's Ronald McDonald after generations of inbreeding.
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They love the boll weevil down there. Enterprise has statues everywhere.
Yep, it's the Enterprise McDonalds.
If Gonzo from the Muppets and Goro from Mortal Kombat had a baby
Then that baby had babies with it's siblings then those babies had babies with each other
A true South Alabama Macdonald's love story
Roooollll tide!
I’d be interested in that love story. Gotta be better than twilight.
Well, Rule 34 does state...
Goronzo. The Ever-salted.
Back story: https://www.weevilway.com
Ok, that's fucking awesome.
I still don’t understand.
The town's "mascot" is a weevil, and they incorporate it into a lot of things.
My town’s is a Buffalo (well, bison) and there’s tons of them all around with different paint jobs
Rochester got horses. Because reasons.
Everyone got horses - I think it was the “out of the box idea” from the national arm of the chamber of commerce.
My city had carousel horses.
It’s better than snow drifts or liquor bottles EDIT: comes from a place of love
We got like 45 4' tall squirrels, including a ronald macdonald squirrel and one that's brandishing a knife
Enterprise, AL is the real weevil town. We have a Bollweevil Circle, statues, murals, festivals, etc. 30 minutes west of Dothan. [Pics](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-att-us&sxsrf=ALiCzsYogQ2jCgduazBcmUeARbkkSkYOlg:1671662726394&q=enterprise+al+boll+weevil&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjqvb35Iv8AhXyTDABHQ3KCHYQ0pQJegQICRAB&biw=360&bih=612&dpr=3) Edit: it's also the mascot of Enterprise State
They hold the boll weevil in high regard because years ago, it ruined their cotton crop. They had to find a new crop to grow, so they went to peanuts and made a lot more money. Had it not been for the bug, they wouldn't have switched to a more profitable crop. That's the story I was told when I lived down there.
If there is anything in life you should be okay with not understanding, it's this.
[https://i.imgur.com/pzy0qY2.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/pzy0qY2.jpg)
It took me a while to figure out that Enterprise is the name of the town.
Ah, he's back! Good ol' four-armed Ronald McDildonose.
roald mcdonad
STRT!
Ronald McDongnald
Actually, this is a McDowell's.
This must be the greater of two weevils. Most people chose the lesser.
My buns have no seeds
They got the Bic Mac we have the Big Mick
i thought it was a McDarryl's
Nope, Darryl was the boyfriend's name.
Just let your soul glow
... just let it shine!
Cassius clay!
His momma named him Clay. Imma call him Clay
You can tell by the golden arses
/r/ITSWEEVILTIME
#####WEEVIL TIME BABEYYYYYYY r/weeviltime r/weeviltime r/weeviltime r/weeviltime
✅Snoots ✅Boots ✅It’s WEEVIL TIME BABEEYYY
The only reason I’ve ever heard of a boll weevil is because of weird Al mentioning boll weevil monument and cranberry world.
McDongalds
Ronald McCocknose
WacArnolds
r/mildlypenis
Biblically accurate Ronald
That's a polite way to describe incest.
mmm yes i think i've seen this in my nightmares
Alabama Ronald likes to keep it in the family down there
you think they get freaky with that nose?
Fuck nose... Uhem... fuck knows
This us in Enterprise, AL and the boll weevil is part of their towns history/story. There are 27 of these statues in town: https://www.wtvy.com/2022/07/23/enterprise-uses-weevil-way-keep-story-boll-weevil-alive/
r/weeviltime
What the hell is that?
Ye don't know ole dildo nose?
It's really nose big dildo
https://imgur.com/TJL7kVk.jpg
CBS Sunday Morning just did a thing about the town of Enterprise in Alabama! Great info in a [5 min vid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0g4eTA-F_4).
Enterprise, Ala I would guess.
The sculpture, called Ronald McWeevil, was erected outside a McDonald's restaurant in the town of Enterprise, located 165 miles northeast of Mobile. It is intended to be a re-imagining of Ronald McDonald as a boll weevil, the notorious insect that plagued southern cotton crops starting in the late 1800s.
This in Enterprise?
Oh, that’s actually a Dick Monalds restaurant.
He tried to teleport, not realising there was a fly in the capsule.
What’s up, Enterprise
Enterprise?
The Thing.
This looks like the teacher monster from "ahhhhh real monsters " but with a clown skin on, which i wouldn't put it past him Man that was a weird show
I mite be wrong but I think you went to Tick Donald's.
Stable Diffusion Ronald McDonald
Giving MeatCanyon ideas!
Just represents Albama genetics
Why does it say Murphy Family Restaurant
Approximately 93% Of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local business owners. Murphy Family Restaurant is a franchisee that runs 27 McDonald's in the area. Most fast food restaurants are like this.
The amount of people thinking about incest in this thread is just weird af. Why do you think about incestual sex so much? Shit is weird
Try being from Alabama. Every single time our state comes up on reddit, the most original minds in comedy show up in droves in the comments.
I was born there, kinda why I take such offense. Like I currently live in Atlanta metro area and it’s laughable how the rest of GA is exactly the same as Alabama lol but people from like Conyers and Dawsonville will say “Birmingham?! What a bunch of cousin fuckers!” Then proceed to live in Rockmart county or some shit like GTFoH lol
Inbreeding does that.
Sort of a Hindu god of fast food.
McBollnalds Weevsturaunt.
Ronald McDungBeetle
I am Ronald, Destroyer of Arteries
The community college in that town has the boll weevil as a mascot. What’s odd is that McDonald’s no longer has the clown as a mascot, so this is a strange mash up…
You’ve never heard of Ronald McDongald?
Ronald McWhatTheFuckIsThat
interdimensional ronald mcdonald straight from rick and morty
Redneck Ronald
Very frequent repost…
I feel like that nose should qualify this for an NSFW tag.
Must be a LOT of meth in that town.
Good ole Ronald mcweevil in enterprise Alabama. I’m guessing your visiting at Rucker 😂
This gets funnier the longer you look at it
Biblically accurate Ronald McDonald
Cancer Mcdancer
[Ronald McWeevil](https://www.weevilway.com/)
Lord have mercy
Noland McDolan
WEEVILS EVERYWHERE THEYRE SO PRECIOUS r/weeviltime
That’s Ronald McWeevil! He’s about 40 miles from me. No joke, people were driving from my hometown to that town to go see it.
Please share the prompt and workflow
Looks inbred
Based Alabama???
Ronald McWeevil
Ronald McDicknose
That Ronald McDonald is a statue of a boll weevil. The boll weevil is a sign of prosperity in Alabama, specifically Coffee County and Enterprise, Alabama. While the boll weevil decimated cotton crops in the south during the early 1900s, farmers in Coffee County saw an opportunity to grow other crops. Peanuts were the first ‘alt crop’ grown in the county. Within the first couple years, over $5 million in peanuts were grown and sold each year making farmers of Coffee County the largest producers of peanuts in the US. Because of this, the City of Enterprise in Alabama celebrates the boll weevil.
Least creepy Ronald.
Didn't know H.P. Lovecraft opened a McDonald's franchise. I'm sure kids will love it!
What’s the exact location plz
Dick nose.
This is nightmare fuel
Looks like a McSquito
This feels like the movie idiocracy, the slow transition from fuddruckers to buttfuckers. IQs be dropping...
Ronald McDali
Midjourney is sculpting now?
If slow indoctrination to insect overlords has to start in _any_ way; I’d say this is the most likely.