The Bull Lost His Tail

White Background with black text and a red and white checkered edge.

Comic Motto Buttons, as they became known sometime in the 1940s (previously known as Comic Celluloid Buttons), hailed from Johnson Smith & Co. catalogues and became popular in the early to mid-20th century. Recognized by their iconic checkered border, featuring salacious slogans and witty banter, the catalogue promised, “Get acquainted – wear these comic celluloid buttons. Slip one or two of these buttons on your lapel and then wait for the wisecracks to begin. The girls get lots of fun out of them. At parties, you break the ice right from the start. Just give one of these to your guest, and it gives the party a flying start.”

Johnson Smith & Company began in Chicago, Illinois in 1914 as a mail-order novelty and gag gift supplier, settling in Racine, Wisconsin in 1926. Johnson Smith & Co. or Johnson Smith Company sold an array of toys including pinback buttons with suggestive slogans meant as ice breakers.

The phrase "the bull lost his tail when the cow died," while never gaining popularity, seems to combine disbelief and talking nonsense (similar to "tie the bull outside") with a fantastical event or story ("the bull lost his tail") that unravels under pressure ("when the cow died"), directed at those who might tell tall tales that do not meet the burden of proof.