2007-09-13 02:20:00 · 9 answers · asked by Time4AcuPPa 4 in Education & Reference ➔ Trivia
Hi there!
William Stickers was the original rebel. He invented advertising, when known as Bill, but went too far and covered up all the windows of the houses of Parliament (known as Black Wednesday). he switch back to Will to escape detection, but the army was after him and coined the famous phrase "Fire at will!" to deal with him.
Briefly imprisoned, the newspapers ran a "Free Stickers Inside" campaign - but Bill escaped and assumed a false identity to avoid recapture. Sadly, he chose "Fly Tippers" as a suitable name and the whole thing started again, he was eventually caught by a police Fly Swat team and hanged.
His body was collected by wellwishers and entombed in a large concrete lamp standard in Highgate Cemetery, so to this day Londoners still say "The Bill is in the post" regularly.
Cheers, Steve.
PS Off for a lie down now.
2007-09-14 01:44:20 · answer #1 · answered by Steve J 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Bill Stickers and his mate Bill Posters are a blight on the nation. There should be a new offence of 'Being in possession of a bucket of wallpaper paste and a brush with intent to deface the neighbourhood'
2016-05-18 05:10:31 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Bill Stickers is not person.
Meaning of the phrase "Bill Stickers is innocent."
Play on words, based on 'Bill Stickers...' notices.
Origin
In the UK in the 1960s an attempt was made to reduce fly posting (the illegal pasting up of posters). Warning notices were put up with the legend 'Bill Stickers Will Be Prosecuted'. Waggish fly posters responded with 'Bill Stickers is Innocent' notices.
The joke wasn't new in the 1960s though. In a New York newspaper The Olean Herald, 1884, there's a piece reprinted from the London Graphic:
"A countryman named William Stickers, flying to London to escape from rural justice, was appalled at reading on a wall: 'Bill Stickers Beware!' He went a little further, but reading again, 'Bill Stickers will be punished with the utmost rigour of the law,' gave himself up for lost and surrendered."
This tale, which is just a joke of course and not a verbatim report, appeared in various forms in newspapers in the 1880s.
2007-09-13 02:24:30 · answer #3 · answered by Heather 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
I always getting mistaken for some guy called Joe King. Some people I've known for years keep telling me I must be he, so I can sympathise with Bill. Obviously a case of mistaken identity.
2007-09-13 02:42:28 · answer #4 · answered by mustardcharlie 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Him and Nosmo King were a right pair of scallies. Deserve all they get.
2007-09-13 08:32:53 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've always said he was innocent, him and Bill Posters.
2007-09-13 02:33:38 · answer #6 · answered by Maggs 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because he's a complete and total git.
2007-09-13 02:27:52 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
the charge will never stick.lol
2007-09-13 12:21:57 · answer #8 · answered by HaSiCiT Bust A Tie A1 TieBusters 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He didn't do it... he was framed!
2007-09-13 02:27:55 · answer #9 · answered by Polo 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋