Status: Classic prank
Making 'Bunny Ears' behind someone's head has to be the most ubiquitous prank of all time. I can't think of anything that would rival it. In fact, it's so pervasive, so taken-for-granted, that I had never given it a second thought until I read
this article by Rachel Sauer in which she attempts to trace a brief history of the bunny-ears prank. She writes:
Way back in the early history of photography, back when people had metal rods strapped to their backs and clamped to their necks so they could sit still for the 30 minutes required for exposure, there were no bunny ears. In fact, in those portraits, there were no smiles. It was a very severe time, as though everyone had just received terrible news... It is impossible to pinpoint exactly when bunny ears first showed up in photographs behind someone’s head, though it started happening often in the ’50s. And, oh, to know why they did. ... Why a rabbit? Why not a Statue of Liberty crown with all five fingers? Why not a single antenna? Why not devil horns, with the index finger and pinkie?
So she assumes that the prank only came into existence when people started to pose for photographs. Which makes sense, I guess. Nowadays it's rare for someone to make bunny ears except when a photo is being taken. Though maybe, back in the middle ages, making bunny ears during formal occasions (perhaps as the priest was saying mass) was a popular jest. Who knows? Obviously this is a subject crying out for further research.
Sauer also points out that the more formal the occasion, the funnier bunny ears become:
It’s funny when George H.W. Bush makes bunny ears on his wife, Barbara. It would be knee-slapping if someone did bunny ears on the pope, say, or Osama bin Laden. Incongruity makes them funny. But then, it’s not so funny when your idiot roommate ruins every picture.
Since I evidently have nothing better to do, I spent half-an-hour finding interesting bunny-ear photos on the web. Here's what I came up with. (A few of them I could only find in thumbnail size.) They are, from the top left: George H.W. Bush giving his wife bunny ears (from Sauer's article); Muhammad Ali giving them to Billy Crystal; George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg; A British schoolboy gives Charles Clarke, the UK's education secretary, bunny ears during his official visit to the school (this photo caused
a bit of controversy as it soon appeared in many British papers, amid allegations that the photographer had egged on the boy to do it); Crosy Stills and Nash giving each other bunny ears; George Lucas earing a stormtrooper; Gloria Steinem bunny-earing herself... a reference to her past as a Playboy bunny, I assume; a nurse bunny-earing a skeleton; Ted Case of AOL giving Ted Turner some ears; Paul Newman being eared by his wife, Joanne Woodward; and finally, Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon.
If any of you have interesting bunny-ear photos, email them to me. If I get enough good ones, I might consider adding a gallery of bunny-ear photos to the museum.
Comments
It's evolved into a more 'I'm making this person look silly'.
So was George H.W. Bush sending a secret message when he bunny-eared Barbara? :lol:
The cuckold origin may well be a myth, but that article reads like Sauer was just making her story up as she went along, too. Anyone know of any very early references to the gesture? What's the earliest cite for 'bunny ears' to refer to the gesture? Could the 'bunny ears' interpretation possibly postdate the gesture, possibly as ssome kind of bowdlerization thereof? Could it have been influenced by association with bunny girls? Enquiring minds want to know.
Under an article for the "V sign"
"In United States culture, it is now probably most frequently seen as a gesture of peace, a connotation that became popular during the peace movement of the 1960s. The gesture is also used in a manner similar to the corna, by serruptitiously holding it behind a person's head. This use of the gesture, often called "bunny ears", is usually regarded as a meaningless prank without the corna's implied cuckoldry"
(Benedict "Much Ado About Nothing"
"The savage bull may, but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull
Can you be more specific than "Ancient Pagan"? A individual culture maybe?
Pixie-
Thank you but I really didn't do much research I used to act and I played that role so I remembered the line. After that just a little Google and cut and paste.
"Shakespeare quotes are much more impressive than Dan Brown quotes."
You ain't just a-woofin' there, cousin!
References to the cuckold's horns are common in Shakespeare, incidentally - here's Falstaff in the abysmal hack work 'The Merry Wives of Windsor':
"Hang him, mechanical salt-butter rogue! I will stare him out of his wits; I will awe him with my cudgel; it shall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns."
It's also found in many other old sources in European writing - Moliere, for example, made reference to the horns in both Tartuffe and The School for Wives, I believe. Rabelais, too:
<i>"Tu sera coqu, homme de bien, je t
Our former prime minister did it to the prime minister of spain on an official photo.
He wasn't reelected.
When I see someone pointing a camara at a group of friends and concentrating hard on framing their shot, I casually saunter up BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHER and give THEM the bunny ears!
You have to get your timing just so in order to achieve the right effect, but when you do, you find that at the critical moment when the shutterbug clicks off the shot the whole group they're shooting is grinning from ear to ear.
-=trickyelf>
It used to be fun to see how long your victim would go before you were discovered.