Black background with yellow text

The playful and irreverent slogan “Give me a quarter or I’ll touch you” humorously combines a fake threat with a money demand, creating an intentionally uncomfortable yet funny effect. This kind of humor reflects the larger style of novelty pinback buttons from the late 1980s through the 1990s, which often used sarcasm, sharp one-liners, and ironic comments to make people laugh or poke fun at politeness. These buttons served as minor signs of personality, often referencing pop culture or social taboos in ways that were both confrontational and self-aware. The bold statements they displayed aimed to attract attention, start conversations, or just entertain those who enjoy humor that pushes boundaries.

Ephemera, Inc. is a Phoenix, Oregon-based novelty wholesale company founded around 1980, known for its humorous, irreverent products like magnets, buttons, and stickers. The company considers itself the “belligerent drunk of the online novelty item community,” featuring sarcastic, edgy slogans in a bold, throwaway style reminiscent of the literal meaning of “ephemera.”

Glittery green background with white text

Fruit Cake is a type of dessert that is usually aged and contains suspended jellied fruits. It used to be something that only the rich could afford to eat because fruit was expensive. This also made fruit cake seem like a prized gift as many homemakers knew the cost and time required to make it. As time went on and fruit became less expensive, fruit cake became more common and the distaste for the dessert grew.

Johnny Carson said, “The worst Christmas gift is fruitcake… There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other, year after year."

Red and white text on a blue background

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White text on a red background.  

The Detroit Red Wings are an American ice hockey team whose colors are red and white. The Detroit Red Wings memorabilia is well- known and recognized even amid those who are not hockey enthusiasts. In the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Cameron is seen wearing a Red Wings jersey throughout the film.

This item is manufactured with a ‘union bug’ label on the back. This mark represents the International Allied Printing Trades Council label marking the item as union made.

Red, black and white illustration of a bull's head on a white background with red and dark blue text above and light blue text below.

In 1996, Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman led the Chicago Bull to win the historic championship at home. They defeated the Seattle SuperSonics in the finals, winning their 4th NBA title in six seasons. The button was created by the Chicago Sun-Times, along with a poster, to promote and commemorate the team in 1997. 

Blue background with a white horizontal strip in the middle with blue text

“Go Bulldogs” is a traditional cheer heard during Yale University intercollegiate athletic team games—notably the university’s football team—where the Yale mascot is “Handsome Dan,” a real and very much alive bulldog. Yale has had a long line of living bulldog mascots over the years, one of the first coming along with the class of 1889, when alumnus Andrew Graves brought the namesake “Handsome Dan” to Yale. The very first bulldog, according to Chief Research Archivist at the Yale University Library Judith Ann Schiff (1937-2022), was an earlier dog named Harper.

Yale students are affectionately nicknamed “Elis” after Elihu Yale, the university’s founder of the early 1700s. At games, one can hear students chanting one of the school’s fight songs—“Bulldog,” written by fellow alumnus Cole Porter—which goes: “Bulldog! Bulldog! Bow, wow, wow. Eli Yale! Bulldog! Bulldog! Bow, wow, wow. Our team can never fail!”

A white background with green text. In the center is a green, large man wearing an old-time football uniform with a leather helmet holding a smaller player by his shirt

Falcon High School was founded in Falcon, Colorado, in 1900. It was the only school in the district until 1997. The school moved to Peyton to occupy an eco-friendly, technology-enhanced building in 2007 with a turf field. This school is most identifiable by its strong football program represented by a forest green uniform which was strengthened by the school’s location change.

Black text on a light brown background with thin black lines

The rounded oval shape of the depicted football contrasts the pointed tips of contemporary footballs. Early footballs were inflated animal bladders placed inside leather covers and they had a rounded form based on the anatomical structure of the animal bladders. The shape of a contemporary football is a prolate spheroid.

Franklin is a sporting goods manufacturer founded in 1946 by brothers Irving H. Franklin and Sydney Franklin whose grandfather had been in the scrap leather business. Franklin took off in the 1980s with their professional-grade leather baseball batting gloves but have since expanded their business to the production of footballs and many other sporting accessories. Though Wilson sporting goods is the official manufacturer of the National Football League football, Franklin does have a partnership with the NFL to produce branded NFL gear for a casual consumer audience.

I'VE GOT FEVER in black text on a white background, with FOG in red with black accents and a red-and-black soccer ball as the O.

This button is a promotional item for the San Francisco Fog, a professional soccer team that played in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) for just one season, 1980-1981. The owner of the Detroit Lightning had moved his team to San Francisco in 1980, renaming them the Fog. The team played in the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, just south of San Francisco. After the 1980-1981 season, the team was moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where it became the Comets. The MISL existed from 1978-1992.

Red and white striped button with three stripes and red text in the middle

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