# Hollywood Sign Parodies Hollywood Sign Parodies are physical and digital alterations of the giant HOLLYWOOD letters on Mount Lee in Los Angeles, swapping a few characters to make a joke or political statement. The tradition traces to a 1976 art-school stunt that turned the sign into HOLLYWeeD, and versions have appeared onsite and online ever since. ## Overview Hollywood Sign Parodies cover the long tradition of altering or digitally editing the giant white letters on Mount Lee to spell something other than HOLLYWOOD[1]. The sign has been physically edited by pranksters and artists since the 1970s, and digital knockoffs started spreading through image generator sites in the mid-2000s[5]. Because the sign is one of the most recognizable objects in Los Angeles, swapping just a couple of letters produces an image that reads as commentary or a punchline at a glance. Physical alterations usually involve draping tarps or curtains over specific letters to change what they spell. The best-known example is HOLLYWeeD, pulled off in 1976 and again in 2017[1][4]. Digital versions cover everything from movie references to fake city renames, typically made with online generators that let anyone drop custom text onto a photo of the hillside[5]. The sign itself went up in 1923 as an ad for a real estate development, originally reading HOLLYWOODLAND, with 45-foot-tall block letters lit by 4,000 lightbulbs[2]. The last four letters came down in 1949, leaving the shorter version that everyone recognizes today[2]. That status as a landmark is exactly what makes the parodies work. ## How It Spread After the 1976 Hollyweed image traveled around the world, the sign turned into a magnet for pranksters and message-makers. In 1983 someone draped it with GO NAVY before the annual Army-Navy game[1]. Groups edited it over the following decades for a mix of movie tie-ins, protests, and jokes[5]. The 2017 remake was the biggest single event since Finegood's original. On New Year's Day, a lone person dressed in black tactical gear climbed Mount Lee between midnight and 2 a.m., scaled the sign's ladders, and hung four tarps that changed the O's into E's, spelling HOLLYWeeD for the second time[1]. Security cameras caught the whole climb, though rain and darkness made the person impossible to identify[4]. One tarp had a peace sign painted on it, another a heart[1]. The tarps stayed up until park rangers pulled them down around 11 a.m.[4]. The timing echoed 1976: Californians had voted in November 2016 to legalize recreational marijuana[4]. Police treated the act as misdemeanor trespassing because the sign was undamaged[1]. Digital parodies took over as the dominant format from the early-to-mid 2000s onward[5]. Websites let anyone upload custom text over a photo of the hillside, so fake versions moved through email forwards, image boards, and social feeds without any of the physical risk of climbing Mount Lee. Popular templates include swapping HOLLYWOOD for celebrity names, movie titles, city renames, or short joke phrases[5]. The mississauga4sale historical archive tracks how the physical sign itself has drawn tourist fascination, which helps explain why the digital template stays widely readable[6]. ## How to Use Physical alterations require climbing Mount Lee and are prosecuted as trespassing when caught, as the 2017 case showed[1]. The common route now is digital. Typical practice keeps the exact typography and the hillside setting so the swap reads as authentic, then replaces HOLLYWOOD with a shorter or same-length word that lands the joke. Meme generators handle the alignment automatically[5]. The gag often works best when the replacement word plays off the meaning of Hollywood itself, as with HOLLYWEED, or comments on a news story that gives the sign fresh relevance. Fewer letter swaps tend to hit harder than a full rewrite, since the reader's brain fills in the original word underneath. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Hollywood Sign Parodies? Physical and digital edits of the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles that change what the letters spell, going back to at least 1976[1]. ### Where did Hollywood Sign Parodies come from? Cal State Northridge art student Daniel Finegood climbed Mount Lee on January 1, 1976 and hung curtains to turn the sign into HOLLYWeeD as a class project[3]. ### What does Hollywood Sign Parodies mean? The parodies use the sign's recognizability to make a joke or political statement by swapping just a few letters[5]. ### How do you use Hollywood Sign Parodies? Modern versions are made with digital image generators that swap the word HOLLYWOOD on a photo of the hillside for a new word or short phrase[5]. ### Is Hollywood Sign Parodies still popular? Digital versions have kept surfacing since the mid-2000s, and physical alterations have happened as recently as the 2017 New Year's Day Hollyweed prank[4]. ### Who first altered the Hollywood Sign? Daniel Finegood, a Cal State Northridge art student, changed it to HOLLYWeeD on January 1, 1976 for an art class assignment on scale[3]. ### Why was the 2017 Hollyweed prank significant? It came weeks after California voters legalized recreational marijuana, echoing the 1976 alteration on the day a lighter marijuana law took effect[1]. ### What other alterations did Daniel Finegood make? He created HOLYWOOD for Easter 1976, OLLYWOOD during the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings, and OIL WAR in 1990 to protest the Persian Gulf War[3]. ### How was the 2017 Hollyweed prank done? A lone person in black tactical gear climbed Mount Lee between midnight and 2 a.m. and used four tarps, two of them decorated with a peace sign and a heart, to cover parts of the O's[1]. ### Was the Hollywood Sign always called Hollywood? No, it originally read HOLLYWOODLAND when it was built in 1923 as a billboard for a real estate development, with the last four letters removed in 1949[2]. ### Did anyone get punished for the 2017 Hollyweed prank? Police investigated the incident as misdemeanor trespassing because the sign was not damaged, but they had no suspects at the time[1]. ## References 1. [https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-hollywood-sign-hollyweed-20170101-htmlstory.html]() 2. [https://www.history.com/news/90-years-later-8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-hollywood-sign]() 3. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-27-me-finegood27-story.html]() 4. [https://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/01/us/hollywood-hollyweed-sign/]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hollywood-sign-parodies]() 6. [https://www.mississauga4sale.com/Hollywoodland-Sign-Hollywood-California.htm]() 7. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Sign]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/hollywood-sign-parodies Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library