Tie The Bull Outside

Red text on a white background surrounded by a ring made of blue and white squares. 

“Tie the bull outside” is a jokey way of saying “leave the nonsense at the door,” with bull standing in for bullshit—a euphemism in use since the early 20th century. The line shows up early in pop culture, notably on a Mutt & Jeff tobacco insert titled “Tie That Bull Outside” (Kinney Brothers T88, c. 1906–1910). Collector lists suggest the quip was already a familiar punchline by the 1910s.

The phrase took on political overtones in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive “Bull Moose” Party made headlines. Bud Fisher, creator of Mutt & Jeff, riffed on this by drawing Mutt telling Roosevelt to “tie his bull outside,” and the expression came to signal disbelief or rejection. It even appears in literature: in John Dos Passos’s Three Soldiers (1921), a patient’s claim that the war is over draws the reply, “Tie that bull outside.”

As a pin-back, the slogan works as a mid-century “ice-breaker” button: a quick, cheeky way to call out exaggerated talk. Collectors often connect versions of the button to the post-1912 Bull Moose moment, reading them as playful parodies rather than official campaign pieces. Fisher is credited with multiple variations of the design, sometimes seen alongside the popular “I’m the guy” buttons from Hassan Cigarettes.