Why a shadowy cabal of cyber-pranksters wants to have sex with your car

For about 10 seconds, if you didn't know better, you might think the online video clip Strip Mall Spectacular was something someone shot on the way out of a Best Buy, testing out a just-purchased camcorder: Opening with an off-kilter shot of a suburban strip mall on a sunny day, the camera pans left through a parking lot before alighting on the back end of a white Hummer H2. When the camera pans further, you see the humping: two young, scruffy guys lying half-underneath the SUV's grill, vigorously, enthusiastically, and repeatedly thrusting their pelvises up into the gas guzzler's undercarriage. Eventually, after one lets out an ecstatic groan, they both collapse to the ground, spent. It may not be the hottest sex video on the Internet, but as environmental agitprop, it's not half bad.

SUV sex fetishists will find the clip, and others like it, at www.IHumpedYourHummer.com, an online forum where people submit videos of themselves dry-humping Hummers (usually parked ones). It's the brainchild of a 25-year-old museum curator who operates under the handle Humpmaster (to protect his identity from employers and angry Hummer owners). After enlisting two co-workers to help with the project—a 24-year-old female named Humptastic and a 22-year-old male named Hot4H2—the trio jump-started the site by gathering some friends and driving around the outer boroughs in their (compact) cars looking for H2s and H3s to mount. Like so many other ridiculous things on the Web, the site took off, and at this point, all of the content is user-generated. Radar wondered just what drives it.

RADAR: Let's start with the obvious questions: Why Hummers, and why humping?
Humptastic: Well, first of all, there's the obvious alliterative thrill. Hum-ping Hum-mers. I think for a lot of us, Hummers embody current trends in this country in terms of rampant consumerism and environmental disregard. And the Hummer's just such a grossly unnecessary display of wealth and machismo. Unless you're some sort of backwoods militia-member in Montana, there's no reason for one.
Humpmaster: I think the Hummer has become a symbol. I mean, you can spend a lot of time trying to explain the problem with the militarization of civilian space, and you can try to tell someone about America's flagrant disregard for environmental issues ... or you can just say Hummer. That's it right there.

Okay, Hummers are evil, agreed. But you still haven't explained the humping.
Humptastic: It's like our manifesto explains: The act of humping a Hummer unites a lot of people with different ideological goals. From the environmentalists and those who object to the trend toward militarization to those of us who just enjoy disrupting the everyday lives of Hummer drivers.
Humpmaster: And humping is the perfect way to protest: There's nothing illegal about it, but it's so demeaning. It's got humor, it's got the whole leftist thing going on.... There's something for everybody.
Humptastic: And it's good exercise. Kids today don't get out of the house enough.

Wouldn't people with real environmental concerns be better off devoting their time and energy to more traditional forms of activism, like lobbying for stricter fuel efficiency standards?
Humpmaster: Well, personally, I would rather see them humping. But that's not to say that sending a video of yourself humping a Hummer to your congressman wouldn't get a point across.
Hot4H2: One hundred videos of people humping Hummers would make more of an impression than a petition.
Humptastic: The act of thrusting your pelvis is more universal than any form of verbal discourse.

Seriously though, what, if anything, do you expect to accomplish with this?
Hot4H2: The pinnacle would be a flash mob at a dealership with Hummers being humped everywhere you look.
Humptastic: A wave of pelvic thrusts rippling across the globe.
Humpmaster: In my mind, it's better than getting angry and flipping off someone in a Hummer, because that could just get them more excited about their Hummer. This is a way of openly laughing at them. Maybe they'll sit there and think, "My God ... the shame."

PULL UP TO THE BUMPER, BABY Putting the car in carnal knowledge

Most of the ads Google puts on your site are for Hummer dealerships. Doesn't that undermine the purpose of the project? How would you feel about someone buying a Hummer by clicking on an ad on your site?
Hot4H2: Our site is obviously poking fun at Hummers and in no way do we endorse buying or driving Hummers. But isn't it wonderful that we can have a site that mocks a company and still let them pay for it by advertising? Of course, we would feel bad if someone bought a Hummer after viewing our site, but come on, let's be realistic. Our stance on Hummers outweighs the Hummer ads and, in fact, makes them ironic.

What makes for good Hummer humping?
Humpmaster: There are just so many different places you can hump. You can be hanging off the back U-hook. There's the up thrust. I want to get some women riding a Hummer. Like with human-on-human sex, there are hundreds of positions.
Hot4H2: You have to try new things. You definitely don't want to get in a rut. Try a different angle.
Humptastic: Like anything, it takes practice.
Hot4H2: You're not going to get it on your first try.
Humpmaster: It's obvious that some of the videos we've gotten have been first-time humpers. You can tell they haven't been out there practicing their moves, and, frankly, there's been a lot of foreplay skipped.

Hummer humping requires foreplay?
Humpmaster: Yeah, you've got to warm it up. You can't just jump in there guns a'blazing.
Humptastic: People get hurt that way.

Any other advice for those considering Hummer humping?
Humpmaster: We've actually been doing some work on a Kama Sutra for Hummer humping—an interactive tool you can use to learn how to hump Hummers. It'll be available for download.

What other plans do you have for the site?
Humpmaster: I think a ratings system for the videos would really help. Right now, the only way to tell which videos people like is by reading the comments.
Hot4H2: The best videos start huge arguments. We've got Hummer owners saying things like, "If you ever did that to my Hummer, I'd come out and beat the fuck out of you."
Humptastic: It's a really discursive environment.
Humpmaster: Today we got a bunch of comments from Russian Hummer owners. Some pretty remarkable comments in attempted English like, "Fucking Hummer humpers, get your dick out of things."

So Hummer humping has gone international?
Humpmaster: It's a worldwide phenomenon. We've got submissions from Switzerland, photos of a Russian Hummer dealership, and there's the French Canadian one....
Hot4H2: The guy was wearing gloves and fisting a Hummer, yelling something. I didn't understand what he was saying, but it sounded dirty.

What do your friends and loved ones think of your hobby?
Hot4H2: Well, Humptastic got her mother involved.
Humptastic: I was home on vacation and my mother and I were driving around and we spotted a Hummer. I asked my mom if she'd be willing to hump it, and she said no. Eventually she conceded to film me humping it. At first she was really appalled, but then she got really into directing it.
Humpmaster: I went to an eco-friendly college—I get tons of e-mails from college friends saying, "We can't believe this is you." They didn't think I was going to amount to much after graduation ... and look at me now!