Jeepers Creepers 2

Black text on a pale green-yellow background. A black checkered border runs around the edge.

“Jeepers, creepers, where’d ya get those peepers? Jeepers, creepers, where’d ya get those eyes?” Thus begins the chorus to the jazz standard, “Jeepers Creepers,” written by Jonny Mercer and Harry Warren for the 1938 movie Going Places. ‘Jeepers Creepers’ is a ‘minced oath’ stand-in for ‘Jesus Christ.’ (A minced oath is a kind of euphemistic stand-in for a word of profanity, much like the terms ‘heck,’ ‘shoot,’ and ‘gosh.’) Just two years prior, in 1936, the company AAA printed safety posters that read, “Jeepers Creepers, Use Your Peepers!” to warn drivers to stay vigilant on the road. Then, in 1939, the phrase and song both featured in a cartoon starring Porky Pig and his investigation into a haunted house; it was with this feature that the phrase became associated with creepy, haunted, and spooky themes.

Soon after, ‘Jeepers Creepers’ could be seen on everything and anything, from posters to buttons. In the 1940s, carnivals gave out checkered pin-back buttons as game prizes and souvenirs, many of which had funny phrases like “You’re the One” and “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No ‘Mo.” This “Jeepers Creepers” button may be a variation of this, but instead of the typical red and white checker print along the border, this has black and white, a call-back to the phrase’s spooky theme.