San Francisco Spirit Alive and Kicking In Super Bowl Anagrams

Sometimes you read so many stories about San Francisco losing its soul -- its irreverent, much-celebrated, anti-establishment spirit -- that it's hard not to believe them.

Then we put aside our differences, work together, and accomplish something like this.

Ever since Super Bowl 50 organizers installed 10 heavy, graffiti-resistant statues around the city last week, critics have seemingly worked around the clock to deface them. Football-hating vandals have torn solar panels from the promotional behemoths, and in one case succeeded in knocking one of the 1600-pound statues over.

But we also like to verbalize our feelings here. And presented with only the letters spelling out "Super Bowl 50," San Franciscans have displayed an unprecedented level of interest in one of the lesser-appreciated forms of vandalism: anagrams.

"Sup bro," "superb owl," "oops" and other creative reinterpretations have been spotted around the city in the past week.

This anagram-dalism was so upsetting to Super Bowl organizers that on Sunday, Jan. 31, they apparently had the statue adorning Alamo Square removed.

Here's journalist Mike Rosenberg's helpful collage of the damage thus far:

"Lee Robs" (also pictured above, at the Palace of Fine Arts, via Twitter) is surely the most politically-minded of the bunch.

But it's the repetition and consistency of the vandalism/artwork that has national news outlets writing explainers about why, exactly, San Franciscans are so mad at the Super Bowl.

This Reuters story, out today, does a nice job of summing up some of the tension that organizers maybe weren't expecting when they chose San Francisco for this year's game.

Meanwhile, the Photoshopped image below -- which uses a photo by KQED's Dan Brekke, from our story last week on Sup. Scott Weiner's response to homeless tent camps -- has been making its way around the interwebs.

As for us?

Amid all the snark -- and arguably justifiable outrage about the resources the City of San Francisco is currently pouring into this big, expensive party that isn't even in San Francisco -- we'd like to offer a hint of a silver lining, and take a moment to just revel in our fellow San Franciscans expressing anger in the most San Franciscan possible way. You think graffiti-resistant surfaces will deter nonsense, huh? Ha, says San Francisco. You've got another think coming. 

So the next time someone tells you this city doesn't know how to have fun anymore, you tell 'em: UP R BOWEL, friend. #UpRBowel.