Posted on 01/10/2025 8:11:05 AM PST by Miami Rebel
The first thing Benjamin Jackson did upon arriving in Vancouver on Wednesday morning after spending the holidays in Hamilton was change the marquee outside The Penthouse strip club, where he works as bar manager.
“As soon as I dropped my bags at home, I walked straight to the club to update the sign around 2 a.m.”
During his layover in Toronto, the 43-year-old spent time watching the news and brainstorming his next sign idea. What he didn’t know was that his late-night inspiration would make headlines of its own.
Jackson changed the letters on the marquee to spell out: “Forever neighbours, never neighbors.” The message — highlighting the difference in the way Canadians and Americans spell certain words — was a swipe at U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s repeated suggestion that Canada could become the 51st state.
Within hours, an image of the new sign posted to the strip club’s X account was flagged as potentially hateful content, resulting in the account, @ThePenthouse604, being suspended that night.
“I was blown away,” he said Thursday.
Originally from Ontario, Jackson has worked at the Penthouse since 2015. These days, he is also the social media manager.
For the past seven years, he has climbed a ladder outside the downtown club at 1019 Seymour St. each month to craft a new one-liner that is limited to 40 characters on its marquee.
While some of his messages have earned the business widespread acclaim on social media, others have sparked controversy.
“It all started as me trying to make my friends at work laugh,” Jackson said.
In 2017, after creating a message outside the Penthouse that read: “We take off more than WestJet,” the Canadian airline sent the club a cease-and-desist letter, demanding that the public proclamation be taken down.
We’ll happily take Alberta and Manitoba. The lefties can keep the rest.
why? (because someone will ask)
I keep politics out of my business. friendly or otherwise. I don’t keep my politics a secret, most everyone knows where I stand but mixing business with politics is never a winning strategy unless you are selling political things.
I believe you’re missing the point. And the joke.
No one cares about the management chart of a strip club. (And the article point-blank says that the marquis has been use with humorous intent in the past.)
well played
Do you think a strip club frequenter would be appalled by this mild joke?
It appears the owner put him in charge of coming up with quips for the marquee.
Precisely. And it’s not like he put up something controversial or objectionable like “F Trump!”
Yeah, i'm pretty sure Elon Musk personally banned that guy from twitter/X. You know he doesn't have anything more important to do than monitor "X" all day like a British Cop worrying about "hate" speech.
Exactly. Makes no sense that anyone would have been offended. I suspect the account may have been suspended for some other reason, but they are running with this.
You don’t think that X is a top-down operation?
What is actually said.
What the media reports.
What FR gets all excited about.
It sounds pro-french, anti-english.
Americans coukdn’t give a crap. Nor musk.
Guess you have to be Canadian to get it.
Nothing ‘French’ about it, it’s actually pro-English - the British-English spelling in contrast to the American-English spelling.
Speaking of which, can you imagine Quebec as part of the US? Maybe the State of the Union would have to delivered in both French and English.
Yea, doesn't make any sense to me. Guy flunked English class.
I’m surprised it isn’t already given in both English and Spanish.
Unlike US Spanish, Canadian French is legally protected by law in the 1969 Official Languages Act.
Considering all the other concessions we’ve made, I’m still surprised we don’t have a similar law.
Ah youve drunk the censorship koolaid. Heil!
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