Richard Nixon mask
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Richard Nixon mask is a mask with the features of U.S. President Richard Nixon. These were commercially available and quite popular in the waning days of the Nixon Administration. They are generally made out of thick latex rubber or similar flexible castable compounds.
One of the notable features of most Richard Nixon masks is the classically caricatured nose, sometimes called the ski-jump nose. This prominent feature is reminiscent of the nose prosthetic used in performances of the play Cyrano de Bergerac. Many of the different versions of the Nixon mask have a wide grinning smile as well.
The masks enjoyed a brief initial period of popularity as a fad and sparked a commercial demand for masks resembling famous people, most notably Presidents of the United States. For its part, the Richard Nixon mask remains popular today, worn both for humorous effect, and in peace marches and similar "public displays of disaffection". According to Harper's magazine's October 2002 "Index", Nixon masks were the best-selling political mask for the previous five years for top U.S. costume wholesaler Morris Costumes. [1]
[edit] Famous people who have worn the Nixon mask
- Hunter S. Thompson - Political reporter
- Manic Street Preachers - Welsh band in their video "The Love of Richard Nixon"
[edit] Fictional characters who have worn the Nixon mask
- The corpse - Men at Work
- Wendy - The Ice Storm
- One of the bank robbers in Point Break
- Bookmobile driver - South Park
- Jack McFarland's biological father on Will & Grace
- Robbers in Best Seller
- A protester in the director's cut of Nixon
- Killer in B-movie Horror House On Highway 5
- Eric Forman - That '70s Show
- Meatwad in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode, "The Shaving"
- Peter Griffin - Family Guy episode, "15 Minutes of Shame"
- One of the cheerleader bank robbers in Sugar and Spice
- A group of convenience store robbers in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
- Uncle Joey on Full House recalled streaking on the field at one of his high school's football games while wearing one.
- The passengers on the fictitious "Mayflower" moon shuttle in the movie Airplane II: The Sequel when the shuttle was flying at .5 Worp speed.
