[2] Removable whistle tips have long been used as practical joke devices prior to this fad.
The Oakland Police Department began cracking down on them by interpreting state laws as including tinkering with mufflers.
[5] The bill was passed 22–15[6] by the state senate and then signed into law by Governor Gray Davis, going into effect on January 1, 2004.
[3][7] The ban has been codified by California Department of Motor Vehicles listed as division 12, chapter 5, article 2, section 27150.3.
[8] Whistle tips were popularized by an Internet phenomenon; a KRON-TV interview [citation needed] in which an Oakland man nicknamed Bubb Rubb and his colleague Lil Sis defended and demonstrated the use of whistle tips went viral (specifically, when Rubb enthusiastically, but rather poorly, imitates the sound of the whistle) and was the subject of derivative works on websites such as YTMND.