What the hell is ‘Duck Duck Jeep’?
Automotive culture breeds little behaviors among vehicle owners. From the Volkswagen Beetle wave to the gestures between motorcyclists, certain vehicle types tend to bring their owners together. And there is perhaps no stranger (or more adorable) tradition than “Duck Duck Jeep.”
‘Duck Duck Jeep’ started in Canada and spread across the planet
Have you ever passed a Jeep Wrangler in a parking lot and noticed that the dash is covered in rubber ducks? Well, it’s not an isolated case of a runaway rubber duck affinity. Far from it. It’s Duck Duck Jeep. Fans may also call it “Ducking.” By any name, it’s a cheerful quirk among the brand’s fans.
It all started with Allison Parliament, a Canadian Jeep owner from Ontario. Parliament reportedly left a little rubber duck on another Wrangler near her own. She says that she launched the smile-inducing behavior after a “frightening verbal and physical encounter” with another person, per the official Jeep Ducking page.
Fortunately for the Jeep community, Parliament’s innocent act of joy spread like wildfire. Many Wrangler owners travel with extra ducks on hand, just in case they encounter another Wrangler in a parking lot. Tragically, Parliament passed away earlier this year. She did, however, leave behind a legacy of bright, friendly bonding.
However, ducking is your prerogative. You need not target Wranglers exclusively. Instead, duckers may participate with senior citizen CJs to supercharged SRT Trackhawks. Today, Wrangler owners “duck” one another across dozens of countries from Australia to India, Brazil to Finland. So don’t be shocked when to find a rubber duck sitting on a Wrangler’s fender or tucked into a door handle.
I myself recently “ducked” a friend’s Wrangler. We worked in the same fire department years ago, and this year, he invited me on an odd trip. 2,500 miles of open-top driving in his JK Jeep Wrangler Rubicon to visit one of the nation’s preserved intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) facilities in South Dakota. To commemorate the trip, I brought him a firefighter rubber duck from a shop in Amsterdam. Now, it’s something of a mascot. This Jeep ducks.
