This reminds me of a similar story they covered on The Daily Show a while back; the city of Inverness Florida holds the "Great American Cooter Fest" every year (Cooter is what they call gopher turtles). So of course there was a group of people who wanted to shut it down because some people use cooter to refer to a vagina (I'd never heard the term before).

But seriously, is this really the place for government intervention? While "Pink Taco" is juvenile and sexist, won't the free market put them out of business if people are offended by the name?

Heh. I'd like to thank The Daily Show for bringing a piece of slang I'd never heard before to my attention. You learn something new every day, right?

It hasn't put Hooters out of business yet.

To the responder who wonders whether the free world will put the Pink Taco out of business-it hasn't put Hooters out of business, so why would this one go?

i'm a sex-negative feminist (that is, i don't think women's bodies should be on the menu), so i side with the "too fast to live" t-shirt lady.

but the talking vagina hand gesture the pink taco guy made was pretty funny.

"It hasn't put Hooters out of business yet."

Should Hooters be put out of business? If so, why?

BTW, I've never been to a Hooters, and never will go to one. Just so you don't label me a Hooter's shill.

Ugh. I live about 10 minutes from the new Pink Taco restaurant and think it's pretty vile though it's hard to put my finger on why. Jenna Jameson was at the opening and that sort of augmented my perception of the title as just another example of the female body being posited as a commodity for people to consume.

I am SO with Carol Adams on this one.

Just to be obnoxious, someone should open a restaurant that caters to fans of chicken platers and round shaped side dishes - Cock & Balls - just to see if he is being "unjustly persecuted".

We used to have a gay bar here in Montreal called Kox. Nobody complained.

I'm all for any restaurant that encourages "taco-eating."

(No, really.)

I'm more concerned about Hooters' employment practices than its name. Consequently, since I've heard nothing bad about the Pink Taco with regard to the way it treats flesh-and-blood female humans . . .yawn. Don't care. I'd even eat there!

I've been to the Pink Taco in the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas. The atmosphere is not nearly as objectifying as Hooters. At best, it's a pallid attempt at sexy hipster kitsch.

The name may be sexist, but at least the women aren't required to dress in 70's roller derby shorts with industrial strength nylons and skin tight tank tops in a ridiculous attempt to convey the image of the "girl next door". This is truly how the company describes the women who work there--as per the employment manual.

I saw this segment when it aired on The Daily Show and Colbert is 100% accurate when he said, "The food tastes like ass!" Worse than Chipotle and not at ALL Mexican.

BTW maryjanefoxie, I saw a news segment several years back about a couple of women who had opened a restaurant called Cocks and had adopted a rooster as the logo. Although I can't remember where it was located, I remember the town was in an uproar over it. I wonder what ever happened with it. Such hypocrisy.

As I said to myself whilst watching that Daily Show segment, I must be the only person on earth who has never heard the expression "pink taco" used to refer to a vagina. So should I be offended at a reference I didn't get?

Seriously, we have a Fuzzy's Tacos around here and... I don't think there has ever been any kind of uproar around it. It's like when people make a big stupid deal about fish tacos. It's just a traditional dish, okay. I seriously think nobody really calls ladyparts by these nicknames. They're like a joke that everybody is in on, except for certain people. And then certain people get told, "It's [a widely unused, childish] slang for vagina," and flip out. :(

Hilarious!

Actually, my friends and I have already discussed a fantasy business along these lines...it would operate out of a truck late at night, for all the bar hoppers. The establishment is called BALLS, and everything is served in - get this - balls! I'm already developing a dessert called "blue balls."

Speaking of Hooters, remember when they had an airline? One day on a layover, I wandered to one of the Hooters gates just to see what a Hooters Airline customer looked like. It was all older Midwesterny/Southery couples. Pretty funny!

Just to be nitpicky, it was Ed Helms, not Stephen Colbert...

Anyway, does a name really matter that much? I can understand if someone's worried about their children, but they won't even get this. I didn't even get it. And why do there need to be so many euphemisms for vagina? Is the word too hard for people to pronounce? If you're having sex, you should be able to refer to the body parts involved.

On the other hand, some of the other articles I've read on this just imply that the townspeople think it's just too tacky. It is pretty tacky, actually.

I actually preferred the cooter segment. "Can you catch anything from a dirty cooter?" Plus, those little turtles were adorable.

Have they thought of putting a Hooters directly above a Pink Taco in a two story building? (And maybe have the Republican Party headquarters facing the alley behind?)

Messy Jessy wrote "I seriously think nobody really calls ladyparts by these nicknames."

They do on girls gone wild videos. “Show me your Taco� or something to that effect. And it is not a pet name. It’s sort of condescending name.

Re: The free market not putting Hooters out of business, and probably not putting the Pink Taco out of business either...

This is because guys like going to restaurants where they are served by attractive women. Attractive women like--or at least tolerate--working in such places because the tips are good. They're privately owned concerns, not supported by tax dollars in any way. Nobody is forced to eat or work in such places.

In other words, the free market HAS spoken. Get over it.

hey chief, why don't you take it down a notch? no one is arguing that the pink taco be put out of business or burned to the ground. we're just saying it's fucking stupid and tacky.

and btw, the tips at hooters suck. two of my old roommates worked there and they both quit after a month because they were the worst tips they ever got.

This was a really funny interview by Ed Helms. My major issue with the woman protesting the 'pink taco' was her obvious discomfort at saying the the word vagina. If you can't deal with the slang, you'd better be comfortable with the real term.

The free market sez:

"Externalities? Exploitation? Market Failure? Na-NaNa-Boo-Boo-I-can't-hear-you!"