A couple of years ago when I purchased Fight Club on DVD, I was given a long distance calling card made to look like the Paper Street Soap Company business card from the movie. I carried the card with me in my wallet and would pull it out every once in a while to show my friends. Most of them thought it was quite amusing while others didn't really get it (usually the ones who didn't see the movie).
Anyway, one of these friends (we'll call him K) asked if he could make a copy of the card for use at a Hallowe'en party that he was attending. He was planning to dress up as Tyler Durden, complete with the jacket with fur trim on the collar and business card to boot. I agreed and he printed up about two dozen of the business cards.
It turned out that the cards were a real big hit with the party crowd as K handed them all out.
Several weeks later, I was sitting in a coffee shop, drinking some chai and minding my own business, when I overheard a conversation between a group of "thugged-out " brats. According to them, they had been at a club a day or two previously and started a fight with another group of people. Apparently, the fight didn't go in their favour and they all got the snot beat out of them.
However, to add to the humiliation, each and every one of them was given a business card by the victors.
Brat #1: Yo, can you figure this shit out?
Brat #2: Nah, man...what the hell is "Paper Street Soap Company"?
And that's when my misery began.
A few days later, the same thing happened. Another fight broke out at a pool hall and the losers were given Paper Street Soap Company business cards.
And it continued throughout the next several months. Some group of punks would get a smackdown and the cards would be handed out.
During this time, I asked K if he had anything to do with it. In denying his direct involvement, he did note that he gave the cards out freely at the party so there was no way of knowing who was printing up more of them and passing them out.
Anyway, the whole thing eventually petered out after a while and I never heard about it again.
That is, until recently, when I was in San Diego and the group that I was with got into a bit of a scrap at a parking lot. We pretty much got our asses handed back to us...and then we were handed business cards.
Sure enough, it read Paper Street Soap Company.
Lessons learned? Don't listen to male friends who like to dress up in fur trimmed coats. Don't take the piss out of a one-time joke prop. And for heaven's sake...do not talk about Fight Club.