A gold silhouette of a swimmer is above three lines of gold text printed on a green-cloth background. 

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Pink text outlined in black on a yellow background. 

This is a variation of a "Happy Birthday to Me" button often worn at a birthday celebration by the person of honor. 

An anthropomorphized banana dances with a hat next to black text on an orange background. 

The phrase "go bananas" has its roots on American college campuses from the 1960s. It is believe the term evolved from "going ape" which meant to explode with anger or enthusiasm, much like the mammal counterpart.

Hallmark began in 1910 when Joyce Clyde Hall started selling postcards. He had little money—not even enough to take a horse-drawn cab to his lodgings at the YMCA—but he had an entrepreneurial spirit and the determination of a pioneer. Hall quickly made a name for himself with the picture postcards he sold. Rollie Hall joined his brother in business, and the company was named Hall Brothers. On January 11, 1915, a fire destroyed their office and inventory. They took the only salvageable item, their safe, and set up shop again. With $17,000 in debt, they decided to press onward. As postcard sales declined, they recognized the public’s desire for more privacy in their communication, so they started offering high-quality Valentine’s Day and Christmas cards mailed in envelopes. The fateful fire resulted in the Hall brothers’ decision to buy printing presses and begin producing their own greeting cards in 1915. Hallmark eventually made the move to manufacture and sell collectable memorabilia including pin-back buttons, most of which revolve around holidays and other special events.

Red capitalized text below an illustration of a green alien-like creature with large feet, large eyes, angry eyebrows, and yellow glasses.  

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Bold, navy text at top and normal navy font below on a sky background.

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Uneven middle text in red and blue text above and below on a white background.

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A white background with black text alongside an illustration of a man holding three flowers and wearing a blue jacket, a red and white striped tie, and green checkered pants.  

"Don't Laugh, Your Daughter Loves Me" is a variant of the phrase teenagers of past scrawled on their old cars that may have needed a few repairs: “Don’t laugh, your daughter may be inside.” Some of the earliest occurrences of the phrase are in newspapers and prints from the 1930s. Though the expression has been more often used in the United States and Canada, it initially became popular in Australia. Its usage is generally meant as a reminder to onlookers that their opinions are of no importance and it is typically directed at those who wish to implement more traditional values onto others.

White text on a purple background.

“The devil made me do it” is a phrase associated with Geraldine Jones, a character created by comedian and variety television show host Flip Wilson in the late 1960s. Born Clerow Wilson in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1933, Wilson was known by the nickname “Flip,” from “flip out.” He became one of the most popular African-American comedians in history and influenced later entertainers such as Arsenio Hall and Keenen Ivory Wayans.

Wilson got his start in the mid-1950s in San Francisco while working as a hotel bellhop. After performing in small clubs and theaters across the country, he went to New York, where he appeared on the Tonight Show, the Ed Sullivan Show, and Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. He was given his own television show, the Flip Wilson Show, in 1970. Geraldine became one of his most popular stock characters and was known for phrases like “the devil made me do it” and “what you see is what you get” (the source for the commonly-used Internet acronym “wysiwyg”). Wilson retired from show business in 1974 to spend more time with his family. He died in 1998.

Flip Wilson. (1999). In Contemporary Black Biography. (Volume 21). Detroit: Gale.

A shriveled and deformed face with long blonde hair that is getting brushed with text centered below it on a red background with dandruff particles.

This button is one of many in a series of "Weird-O's" monster buttons created for distribution in bubblegum machines by the Green Duck Button Company in the 1960s. While this one features a shriveled-up shrunken head, other buttons in the series featured such classic monsters as Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula, and Wolfman -- all sporting equally humorous and pun-laden quotes.

Black text below an illustration of a green Godzilla-like monster wearing sunglasses, yellow button-up shirt, red bow tie, white pants, and red and yellow sneakers.  

Bob Zilla is a character created by video producer, animator, and cartoonist John Charles Lamb (Lamb also works under the pseudonym Bob Sweeney). John Lamb first made a name for himself in the 1970s with his invention of the Lyon Lamb Video Animation System, a rotoscope animation system for which he won an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement. Many of Lamb’s animations highlight surfing culture, and there is a permanent exhibit dedicated to his work at the California Surf Museum. In the 1980s, Lamb founded John Lamb Productions, which licensed merchandise like apparel, buttons, mugs, and greeting cards based off of Lamb’s cartoons. John Lamb Productions operated through the 1990s.