Jazz and Get Fat

Black text on a white background with a red and white checkered outer 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.

While there’s no evidence that 'jazz and get fat' was a widely used phrase in the early 20th century, a thematic connection exists between jazz culture and indulgence as well as jazz music’s connection to New Orleans and perhaps Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. The Jazz Age, marked by speakeasies and rebellion, mirrored the celebratory excess of Mardi Gras—where 'Fat Tuesday' symbolizes feasting before Lent—hinting loosely at the interpretation of 'fat' as akin to prosperity.