An illustration of anthropomorphic cat doing office work on an orange background. 

Ms. Boynton is an award winning American author, illustrator and humorist. She began her career designing greeting cards for Recycled Paper Greetings in the 1970’s.  In the mid 1980’s, she sold over 80 million cards a year.  She has authored and illustrated over fifty books for children and adults.  Recently, Ms. Boynton has added songwriting and music producing to her repertoire.

 She has written and illustrated more than fifty books for both children and adults and has thousands of greeting cards to her name. She designs various products with her characters for companies, rather than licensing the characters to be adapted.

An illustration of an elephant carrying a trunk with blue text above and below the illustration. Everything is set on a white background. 

Elephants use their trunks in a variety of ways from caring for their young to carrying things. The dexterity of their trunks is extraordinary as they can reach up to twenty feet high, lift over seven hundred thousand pounds, and can push trees down with ease. While their trunk is not used for drinking, they do use their trunks to store up to ten gallons of water every minute to spray into their mouth for hydration and hygiene. They also use their trunks to express affection for their babies, family, and friends, but it equally comes in handy during confrontational times of need as well. 

An illustration of two feet with black shoes with yellow text under them. Red background on top and blue background below.

This button is one of several produced by Topps Wise Guy. Topps was founded in 1938 and today sells predominantly candy and sport collectibles. In 1965, Topps began the division Topps Wise Guy, where they produced humorous and satirical buttons.

An illustration of a confused looking man with arrows around him pointing in several different directions. Black text above the illustration and red text below it on a yellow background. 

This is one of dozens of variations of “Don’t follow me, I’m lost” buttons. The exact origins of the quote are unknown though it may have originated from the famous Indian philosopher, Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti, also known as U.G. Krishnamurti, who was most known for rejecting ideas of enlightenment and called himself an “anti-guru”. 

An illustration of dentures with large teeth with yellow text above and below the illustration. Everything is set on a red background. 

Typically, the phrase “I don’t bite” is used to convey to another person that there is no reason to be afraid of approaching or talking; it is meant as an assurance that no harm will come out of an interaction. Because of the irony of the phrase being featured alongside an illustration of large dentures, “I don’t bite” can now seem sarcastic and humorous.

An illustration of a police officer's head with red text below it and white text above it, all on a yellow background. 

The phrase "cop out" refers to avoiding doing something one ought to do according to the Oxford dictionary. A cop is also a slang for police officer. Given the imagery and words, this "cop out" appears to be implying that joining the police force is taking an easy profession.

Creative House Productions Inc. originated in 1964 and was a design and manufacturing company based in Chicago, Illinois. It was responsible for the creation of many promotional comic pins found in gumball machines and Cracker Jack boxes. Creative House eventually created the brand PinMart, which became the first website to sell lapel pins. PinMart eventually outgrew its parent company and bought Creative House in 2008.

An illustration of a bearded man with dripping ice on top of his head. Yellow text above and below the illustration on a blue background. 

Beatniks represented a mainstream depiction of the Beat Generation. Herb Caen, a columnist at San Francisco Chronicle created the term “Beatnik” in April 1958, to satirize the Beat Generation in association with Sputnik, the Russian satellite. Fashion trends emerged of black turtlenecks, leggings, straight cigarette pants, dark glasses, goatees, berets, horizontal striped shirts, and loose sweaters. In mass media, silly, chill, and indifferent characters represented beatniks, who typically frequented coffee shops, played the bongos, and used drugs. Beatnik lingo influenced American popular culture, with beatnik men and women referred to as cats and chicks. Words such as “cool”, “like”, “crazy”, “dig”, and “rad” entered everyday American vocabulary. This trend lasted until the early 1960s.

However, in reality, the Beat Generation was a literary movement rejecting capitalism, materialism, and conformity to the status quo which featured writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in the 1940s-1950s. The referred to themselves as Beats, meaning “weary” and “beatific”. They worked on their craft, and explored spirituality by experimenting with drugs, jazz, sensuality, and Eastern religions. Beats detested the beatnik fad. This movement influenced hippies and other alternative cultures.

An illustration of an anthropomorphic bear covered in Christmas decorations. 

The Christmas themed button was intended to elicit joy and positivity during the holidays.

Red text on a yellow background.

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An illustration of a blonde woman with red red text above her and white text below her on a green background.

A "booby prize" is a prize given as a joke to the last-place finisher in a race or competition, according to Oxford. The imagery of the attractive blond woman suggests that the joke here is not a last place prize, although blond women finishing last is its own known joke line, but a prize based on looks or appearance with a sexual connotation toward breasts or their slang, "boobs".

Creative House Productions Inc. originated in 1964 and was a design and manufacturing company based in Chicago, Illinois. It was responsible for the creation of many promotional comic pins found in gumball machines and Cracker Jack boxes. Creative House eventually created the brand PinMart, which became the first website to sell lapel pins. PinMart eventually outgrew its parent company and bought Creative House in 2008.