The horse head mask is a latex mask representing a horse head originally manufactured by novelty purveyor Archie McPhee, and now widely available from other manufacturers. It covers the entire head and is typically part of a Halloween costume, or is worn at other times to be funny, shocking, incongruous, or hip, or to disguise one's identity. It has also become an internet meme. [5]
The horse mask was originally sold by novelty purveyor Archie McPhee as a Halloween costume since at least 2003. [5] Marketed under the name "Horse Head Mask", is made of "realistic brown latex with faux fur mane." [1] McPhee claims "a person wearing a Horse Head Mask looks downright disturbing" and that the mask "has become a worldwide phenomenon". [1] Other manufacturers have since closely copied its look and design.
It is unclear when the mask transitioned from a novelty item to a meme, but there were a number of "accelerants" according to Caitlin Dewey of The Washington Post . [5] Already in 2001 it appeared in Crying at the Discoteque music video by Alcazar among other animal masks. [6] In 2003, the Japanese anime Full Metal Panic? introduced the character Pony-man, "a horse-headed villain who pursued schoolgirls with a hairbrush". [5] Pony-man resembled someone wearing the McPhee horse mask, and since the masks were already being sold, "pony-man kept cropping up". [5] In 2005, Lonely Planet recommended wearing a horse mask while traveling in its Guide to Experimental Travel. [5] Soon after, comedian/actor Tom Green wore a horse mask while screaming and shaking his head around for an episode of his Internet talk show, Tom Green's House Tonight. [5] In January 2008, a performance artist named Wotaken filmed himself picking, cooking, and eating psychedelic mushrooms while completely naked, wearing a horse head mask and dancing to the Final Fantasy soundtrack "Dancing Mad". [5] This film was uploaded to YouTube, received over 2 million views, and propelled the mask to greater prominence. The video has since been taken down for violating the site's terms of service. [5]
After Wotaken's naked psychedelic cooking video, the horse head mask became a more common Internet meme. [5] In 2010 a Scottish man known as "horse boy" was captured by Google Street View; [7] [8] [9] and during Hurricane Sandy, in Washington, D. C., a shirtless man wearing a horse head mask was filmed jogging through a live news shot. [10]
In July 2014, President Barack Obama was photographed in the streets of Denver shaking the hand of a horse-headed bystander, resulting in national press exposure of the mask, including a series of articles in The Washington Post about the meme's history and cultural influences. [5] [11] [2] [12]
Some YouTube video contributors have chosen the horse head mask as their trademark, including Sir Sebastian of "Sir Sebastian's Candy Corner," [13] a candy and chocolate reviewer, as well as a Berlin street performer, "The Neigh Kid Horse," [14] [15] who has been photographed by hundreds of amateur and professional photographers, and who is known for only wearing the mask and his underwear. [16] [17] [18]
Distinctly horselike unicorn head masks are also sold by Archie McPhee [19] and others. They have been used by Arizona State Sun Devils fans as part of attempts to distract opposing free throw shooters. [20] [21] [22]
Although the modern horse head mask meme began with the Archie McPhee rubber mask in 2003, there have been earlier antecedents. In 1997, the British satirical news miniseries Brass Eye briefly showed a horse head mask in the second episode titled "Drugs". [23]
My Little Pony (MLP) is a toy line and media franchise developed by American toy company Hasbro. The first toys were developed by Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steve D'Aguanno, and were produced in 1981. The ponies feature colorful bodies, manes and a unique symbol on one or both sides of their flanks. Such symbols are referred to in the three most recent incarnations as "cutie marks". My Little Pony has been revamped several times with new and more modern looks to continue its appeal to the market, with each new look called a "generation" by the show's collectors and fans. The franchise is mainly targeted at young girls, although in the 2010s, it gained a cult following by an unintended audience of adult, mostly male fans.
Candy Candy is a Japanese series created by Japanese writer Keiko Nagita under the pen name Kyoko Mizuki. The main character, Candice "Candy" White Ardley, is a blonde girl with freckles, large emerald green eyes and long hair, worn in pigtails with bows. Candy Candy first appeared as a manga in April 1975, written by Mizuki and illustrated by manga artist Yumiko Igarashi, a collaboration which was put together by the Japanese magazine Nakayoshi who were interested in recreating a "masterpiece" manga in the same vein as Heidi, Anne of Green Gables and other famous classic titles of literature read predominantly by young girls. The manga series ran for four years and won the 1st Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo in 1977. The story was adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation. There are also three animated short films.
Archie McPhee is a Seattle-based novelty dealer owned by Mark Pahlow. Begun in the 1970s in Los Angeles as the mail-order business Accoutrements, in 1983 it opened a retail outlet dubbed "Archie McPhee" after Pahlow's wife's great-uncle.
Katharine Hope McPhee is an American singer-songwriter and actress. In May 2006, she was the runner-up on the fifth season of American Idol.
Dallas Raymond McKennon, sometimes credited as Dal McKennon, was an American film, television and voice actor, who had a career lasting over 50 years.
4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, music, history, anime, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. Registration is not available and users typically post anonymously. As of 2022, 4chan receives more than 22 million unique monthly visitors, of which approximately half are from the United States.
My Little Pony Crystal Princess: The Runaway Rainbow is a 2006 direct-to-video animated musical fantasy adventure film produced by SD Entertainment and distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment in association with Hasbro. The film is the third feature in the third incarnation of the My Little Pony series and the second film to promote the Crystal Princess line. Unlike The Princess Promenade, the film has been criticized. The DVD also features two more animated features, Greetings from Unicornia and Friends are Never Far Away, which was originally released on video in 2005.
Francesco Francavilla is an Italian comic book artist known for his creator-owned series The Black Beetle and pulp-inspired comic covers. Other notable works include The Black Coat, Dynamite's Zorro series, and his recent run on Detective Comics with Scott Snyder and Jock.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is an animated children's television series produced by Hasbro that ran from 2010 to 2019 as part of the My Little Pony toy franchise. The series tied in with the 2010 relaunch of dolls, play sets and original programming for the American children's cable channel The Hub. Lauren Faust was selected as the creative developer and executive producer for the show based on her previous experience with other animated children's shows such as The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network. Under Hasbro's guidance, Faust developed the show to appeal to the target demographic of young girls, but created characters and settings that challenged formerly stereotypical norms of "girly" images, adding adventure and humorous elements to keep parents interested.
GloZell Lyneette Green, better known mononymously as GloZell, is an American YouTube personality. GloZell established her YouTube channel in 2008, with video interviews, comedy about her life and song parodies. By 2015, the channel had accumulated more than four million subscribers and more than 700 million total views. Her most popular videos include her cinnamon challenge video, which has accumulated more than 53 million views, and "My Push up Bra will help me get my man" video, with more than 25 million views. She gained wide notice when her blog about meeting Elijah Wood was mentioned by the actor during a 2011 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. In 2012, she appeared in the web series Dr. Fubalous.
Diana Kaarina is a Canadian actress based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is known for her voice acting work in animation and video games, notably as the voice of Barbie in the eponymous film series between 2010 and 2011. She is also active in theatrical performances.
"Slice of Life" is the ninth episode of the fifth season of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as well as the 100th episode of the series overall, which was celebrated as a milestone episode by Hasbro and its affiliates. It was directed by Jim Miller, written by M.A. Larson and produced by Devon Cody. The episode aired on June 13, 2015 on Discovery Family.
Archie vs. Predator is a comic book and intercompany crossover, written by Alex de Campi and drawn by Fernando Ruiz. It was originally published as a four-issue limited series in the United States by Dark Horse Comics and Archie Comics in 2015. The single issues were released between April and July, a hardcover collection went on sale in November 2015, and a paperback collection became available in August 2019.
Equestria is the fictional setting of the fourth and fifth generations of the My Little Pony toy line and media franchise, including the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and My Little Pony: Pony Life. Created by Lauren Faust, the setting incorporates many elements of fantasy, including inspirations from European and Greek mythology.
President Barack Obama is an oil-on-canvas portrait of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, completed by the artist Kehinde Wiley in 2018 for the National Portrait Gallery. It received a mixed response from the media and the public.
Joe Biden is a recurring fictionalized characterization of the American politician of the same name in satirical online newspaper The Onion. Between 2009 and 2019, The Onion staff consistently portrayed Biden as an outrageous character who shared almost nothing with his namesake besides the title of vice president of the United States. Instead, the publication portrayed Biden as a blue-collar "average Joe", an affable "goofy uncle", a muscle car driver, an avid fan of 1980s hair metal, a raucous party animal, a shameless womanizer, a recidivist petty criminal, and a drug-dealing outlaw. The Biden character became one of The Onion's most popular features during the Obama presidency, garnering critical acclaim and a large readership.
Panic Pete, also known as Jo-Bo, Obie, The Martian Popping Doll, The Martian Popping Thing, Popping Martian or Bug-Out Bob is a novelty rubber squeeze toy invented by John M. Auzin.
Media related to Horse masks at Wikimedia Commons