In December 2023, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias reported on camera that the state rejected more than 300 applications for vanity plates from drivers. The digits, which spelled out profane, offensive, or inappropriate words, among other labels, landed on the DOT’s banned license plates list.

I’ll go ahead and warn you now that you can assume the videos contain these words spoken out loud.

Annually, Giannoulias reads off several vanity plates submitted for approval that got banned instead of being issued to drivers

That year, the state received more than 54,000 requests for vanity plates. Hundreds were rejected.

“Eat butt, boner, [bleeped out], whoop ass, deez nuts…”

By the time the Secretary of State gets through just a few of the banned vanity plates, everyone behind the scenes of local news station WGN seems to be having a hard time keeping it together.

Giannoulias finishes the sample with “poopsie” and “Iowa sucks.”

“Clever is too generous a word, although some made me laugh,” he says to the drivers who submitted them.

He did it again for 2024

Last year, the state received even more applications for vanity plates, crossing 60,000. Of those, officials rejected 335.

In January 2025, Giannoulias hit the podium again to read off some of the banned plates.

BITCHIN, JAGWEED, AXEHOLE, WEENIE, GYATT (which he had to Google), MUNCH (which, he was told, means more than it sounds), DUCKOFF, SHIDDED, and, of course, HOCKTUAH all got banned.

WGN added that other vanity plates were rejected because they contained digits that were difficult to read when combined.