Hi Rob,

I love your site, and just saw the whole Levitra couch pages -- hilarious. Could you _please_ do a science club experiment to get to the bottom of this? It would be more of a psychological / anthropological / observational type of experiment, but it would be fascinating.

I would suggest finding an old couch and placing it in a random location, but not on a garbage pick-up day so it has some time to steep. Then, have someone observe the couch from a distance--preferably from the inside of an Econoline van w/ tinted windows ala StakeOut.

Then, when the Tagger comes--the observer can snap a few pics and get the truth out -- a sort of National Geographic / UFO Spotting stealth mission...only with couches and E.D. tags.

Godspeed,
Frank Frunk.

Tim sent this photo and a note from Rocklin, California:

hey rob. love the site. ive been reading it since fark linked to the goldschlager story back in june. a lot of the people on fark were commenting about how the gold was fake, but they sounded like a bunch of unbrained kids to me. i am pleased to announce that your levitra couch phenomenon has spread out of sacramento and into rocklin. this one was behind the new onion factory restaurant. at first i thought it was trying to transform out of its skin, but looking at the photo i can tell it is two couches piled onto one another.

tim pooling

Hey Rob,

I contacted glaxoSmithKline, the makers of Levitra. While they had no clue about the couches, they assured me that it wasn't some sort of marketing/advertising scheme. 

Good luck on the search. 

Vic Gronenthal

Rob,

I hope no one has sent a photo of this couch from Austin yet! It is near a Rite-Aid Pharmacy parking lot, which I think is pretty appropriate for a levitra couch. Do you have to pick up a levitra or viagra prescription at the pharmacy, or does your doctor give it to you? I'd hate to have to be embarrassed twice... not that I need Viagra or Levitra, I'm just saying.

Let me know if you are ever out in Austin, TX. I'll show you all the loose bars.

Luke 

This was the shortest letter. 

One of the couch pictures was staged.

My theory is that "levitra" tag means that the couch is garbage and should get hauled out with the other trash - I'm working on finding proof for my theory!
Marissa.

Further fuel for my theory - to lift in Spanish is "levantar," but I don't see a conjugation that looks like 'Levitra."
Marissa.

Ok, so nothing more could be found about "lift" and levitra. So, maybe call the garbage people in your town and see what they have to say about it? Perhaps it's lingo that they use...
Marissa.

This couch arrived as a super-giant attachment, but with no explanation or location.

Martha Decker sent this, possibly the ugliest of the Levitra Couches, along with a theory or five.

Hi Rob.

The levitra couches are in Baton Rouge, LA also. At least this one is.

I noticed that this couch, like the ones on your site already, has a tear in the fabric. I realize that these are usually junk couches, but these tears seem unusually frequent. Perhaps the people who spray paint them also rip them, or they rip them while they are searching them. Or perhaps they spray paint the couches they have already searched, so that other people will know not to bother searching them, sort of like how rescuers will mark a house "clear" or "unstable" so that it doesn't have to be searched or inspected again.

Good luck with your search. I hope this photo helps.

-Martha

Rob,

It has come to my belief that the Levitra couches phenomenon is nothing but a hoax created by yourself to gauge a different phenomenon known as 'pseudo-ostension'. 

According to the glossary Snopes.com, an urban legends website (a pretty good one too): 'Pseudo-ostension is the act of deliberately acting out an existing urban legend (e.g., children secreting pins in their Halloween treats to throw a scare into the community or pranksters in Pulaski, Virginia, placing syringes in payphone coin return slots in 1999). '

I think it's rather ingenious that you pull off a prank that people can easily replicate...all it takes is a digital camera, a can of spray paint and a couch sitting in an alleyway. The fact that your website is loved by many people from across the US and the world makes a perfect conduit for which to create a seemingly random network of "couch-sightings". In essence, you're creating your own bigfoot, where people feel the need to fabricate their own version of something they know not to be true in order to become a part of the legend by being an eyewitness (don't get me wrong though, I DO believe in Bigfoot!)

I dig what you're doing. If you tell a story often enough it becomes true, and the thousands of Cockerham minions in the US would be eager to contribute to your story by spray-painting a couch and sending in a picture. 

Well Rob, I think that you really Cockerhammed your audience with this prank. Congrats.

Kevin L. Thompson
Johnson City, TN

PS. Remember, me? I'm the John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt guy!

John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt! That's my name too! Whenever we go out, the people always shout, John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt! Fa la la la la! John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt! That's my name too! 

And another from unknown location

Hello.

You don't know me but maybe you know something about the paint job on my couch.  My porch couch has become an ad for Levitra. A situation I find distasteful. After reading your site, I see that most of the couches there are abandoned or junkpiled. My couch, however was not, so please let me know whose ass I get to kick when I found out who is behind this graffiti.

T.I West

The next couch photo I got was this pink one, playfully falling down the hill like one of the girls in Little House on the Prairie. 

Rob,

Our Scout troop went on a "wildlife restoration" project in August, which you might think would involve restoring falcon nesting areas or returning mistakenly trapped beavers to freedom, but is actually "cleaning up vacant lots, grass near streams and fields". We took a photo of this couch before we started, but couldn't get it off the lot because it was too big. We did replace the cushions and set the couch up overlooking a nice hill.

Bantam H.

Hi Rob.

I love your site, and my sister really, really loves your site. I'm sure she has written you a few times, her name is Alise Potter. 

Anyway, one of those Levitra couches popped up outside the apartment building my girlfriends parents own. I guess I appeared too excited about it when they told me, because after I saw it, they mentioned that I could have it if I wanted it. I think they expected me to haul it away, but I just wanted a picture.. for YOU!

Enjoy! If you want the whole couch, it is free for the taking. Maybe you could sell it on ebay as a sideways couch -PULE.

-Russ Potter

Here is a photo of some hot couch-on-couch action, brought to you by Karen, and Levitra. 

Location unknown.

This sounds like a reasonable theory, but aren't the couches pretty obviously trash as they sit? Or maybe they aren't trash, who is to judge?

 He wrote back:

Okay, well, now that I've done some googling, my theory seems to wilt like some erectily disfunctional male genitalia. I didn't realize it was a drug. I also didn't realize just how insidious it is, appearing in so many goddamn websites. Even if you google paint levitras sign couch garbage, you get 47 results, none of which shed any light. So maybe levitras is just some booming guerrilla ad campaign.

Brady

Here is a nice cushionless one

This would be a really nice couch if it were re-upholstered. With new cushions, except for the spray paint smell... and the other smell. Ok, it is garbage.

Maurice A.
Jollyville, TX

RedTed sent this photo from Davis, CA.

Here is another Levitra couch for you, but this time, they tagged it with the whole name, Vardenafil HCI. Sorry it is such a crappy photo. It was dusk. I can go back on Saturday if you need a better photo.

RedTed

This kind of thing just makes me laugh. Awesome!

This is crazy! Like you said earlier, I'm starting to think it might have some connection to the shoes hanging from a telephone wire signal. Maybe it's a signal that you could buy Levitra/Viagra there.  I'm telling everyone about this at work today. (at a local pharmacy)  They'll at least have a crack up. We have a few customers that we suspect to be selling their supply on the street. Maybe I could ask one of them!

If you ever use this email on one of your pages, please don't include my name.

Benjamin Franklin (not his real name)

Hey Rob,

Here is a new Levitra couch for you from Taos, New Mexico. This one has seatbelts! Maybe it is from a 1961 Chevy Levitra!

Eric

Also, several people have alerted me to the Unlikely Wikipedia definition, which was changed about a week later.

Update! Levitra Couches page 6