Odd and inappropriate Valentine's cards of yesteryear

Here's a small sampling of artist Mitch O'Connell's fabulous Valentine's card collection gallery. (These are real cards, not something Mitch made up.)

Just in time to send to your Valentine sweetheart, a huge selection of the offbeat, odd, perplexing, inappropriate, outlandish, bizarre, sexist, eccentric and far-out funny cards, all collected in one place ...for YOU (with love)!

Subject matter includes anger issues, from punching, stabbing, shooting your loved one to running them over with your car. "A woman's place is in the home" themes with pots 'n pans, brooms and dust pans expressing how your heart beats for them. "Find the hidden penis" is a M.O'C Blog Valentine favorite with suggestively placed rulers, logs, bananas, balloons, rocket ships, and hot dogs showing how you really, REALLY feel!

Unintentionally Hilarious Vintage Valentine's Day Cards! See the top 100 Risque, Rude and Sexy examples of all time!

Mitch also has a new art book -- Mitch O'Connell, the World's Best Artist by Mitch O'Connell! Look for an exclusive preview soon on Boing Boing. It's available for pre-order on Amazon, or directly from Mitch's site.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog

I don’t know about “unintentionally” hilarious, e.g. it’s pretty clear that Fido is farting and that the slumberer smelt it…
- Navin_Johnson
  
  Then as fart law clearly states: The slumberer must have dealt it.
dragonfrog

I’m not sure how much of the humour was unintentional, myself.

Despite the evidence to the contrary, every generation thinks they invented sex…
- yoshua
  
  The people of the past were a whole lot less prude than we give them credit for.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    You don’t say.
    - http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog
      
      “Methylene blue is used intracavernously to treat priapism, but it should not be used in treatment of recurrent priapism or fibrosis because it can induce penile necrosis. Temporary blue discoloration of the penis is also of concern.” – Wikipedia
jennybean42

Just look at that banana one. Just look at it.
- oasisob1
  
  Damn you. That was my line!
franko

i have no [additional] words.
blueelm

The love cannon is loaded, baby.

Oh dear!
- ocker3
  
  Oh Yeah!
Geoff Maciolek

I’m not sure if these are “real” or not – i.e. did the artist create them? It’s not entirely clear to me.
- http://www.facebook.com/victor.jimenezmerino Víctor Jiménez Merino
  
  “These are real cards, not something Mitch made up”
  
  Also, you are severely underestimating the poor taste of our ancestors.
Navin_Johnson

That cowgirl must have on one hell of a strap on.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YDTN7MUIUZNGTVOYR7ZJSXZAN4 kid_a_ok_com…

Such an odd, harsh juxtaposition – sweetly nostalgic coupled with lewd “juvenality.”
Wreckrob8

These look like saucy British seaside postcards with the message spelt out in words for those who are a bit slow.
Conan Librarian

Whats inappropriate about them, and why unintentional? Looks pretty intentional to me. Did people not laugh in the past?
Shelah Hockman

There are crude and suggestive cards on shelves in grocery stores and card shops now. Still creepy and inappropriate for general consumption.
http://www.facebook.com/greg.ercolano Greg Ercolano

In the first photo (“It’s loaded..”), having a hard time visualizing what that “thing” is in front of the kid.. The text implies it’s a canon, but it looks like a conch shell loaded with a baloney, or maybe a severed limb.