T H E TO OT H B R U S H TA S H Comedy gold or the root of all evil?
The toothbrush tash, the postage stamp, the 1/3 moustache: these are all names for what is undoubtedly the most controversial patch of hair that a man can wear on his upper lip. This small growth of bristly outrage is a style of moustache that was all the rage in the late 19th century but for one reason or another it has somewhat dropped from the fashion radar. In fact you could argue that it would have been totally forgotten if it wasn’t for two great historical figures. I say two great figures but what I really mean is one great figure and one undeniable mentalist with an unfounded hatred for a large portion of humanity.
I am, of course, talking about Adolf H it le r a n d C h a r l i e Chaplin (Hitler’s the mental o n e ) T h e s e are t h e only two men throughout history who have notably sported the toothbrush tash. Their wearing of this tash became so iconic that it has effectively been renamed in their honor. A l t h o u g h the toothbrush moustache is the official name of the style (official meaning it’s wiki-certified) it is much more commonly known as the Chaplin or Hitler tash but who does it really belong to?
Chaplin was the first of the two to wear the moustache when, in 1914, he made it a part of his, then unknown, on screen persona ‘The Tramp’. This character went on to become a quintessential icon of both comedy and film and launched Chaplin’s career but how much of this was down to the moustache? Chaplin initially added the whiskers to his character as it provided age and a comic value without hiding his all-important facial expressions but what it became was so much more. It became a symbol that represented both him as a comic and comedy as a whole. How long was this representation going to last though?
There are many rumors as to the origins of Hitler’s moustache choice; some even say that it was directly influenced by Chaplin’s films but the theory that is most widely accepted is that Hitler trimmed down from a larger moustache in The First World War under the orders of an officer who told him to shave it in order to properly accommodate his gas mask. Whatever the truth may be; there is one thing that cannot be argued and that is the fact that Chaplin’s comic icon had been compromised. This small strip of facial hair no longer represented laughter, it now represented something very different and much more sinister.
Despite that little histor y lesson we are still no closer to answering our initial question: Is this moustache comedy gold or the root of all evil? Maybe it’s both. It would be fair to say that to different people it represents different things. It is probably one of the strangest icons in the world in that way. After all, who would have thought that the same little square of hair could, on the one hand, represent
love and laughter whilst on the other hand representing hatred, death and just plain old nastiness? How could two people that were near enough polar opposites come to be summed up by the same inch of facial fuzz? The answer to this question may stem from the revelation that Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin actually had more in common than just a questionable choice of lip coverage.Time for more history.
Meet baby Adolf. Despite looking worryingly sinister for a child of his age there are not yet any signs that he is going to become ‘a bad egg’. Sure he’s drawn a few squiggles that might loosely resemble a swastika but what troublesome toddler hasn’t? What I am trying to say is that at this point in his life there were no signs that he wanted to start world wars and kill all the Jews; No concrete signs anyway.
Hitler’s father was a brute of a man (like f at h e r like son) and by his school years their relationship was battered. This troubled home life was reflected in his disregard for school and his tendency to gather followers through being naughty. We are not yet talking holocaust-naughty, that was a whole different level.
Similarly to Hitler, baby Chaplin (born only 4 days before his evil counterpart) was brought up in a troubled home with a drunk for a father and a mother who was certified as mentally ill (certified by a Doctor this time, not wikipedia). By the age of seven Chaplin and his brother were sent to the workhouse as their parents were deemed unfit to care for them.
Although they fell shor t in the ch i l d c a re depar tment C h ap l i n ’s parents did introduce him to the stage. Being performers themselves (when they weren’t drunk or crazy) Mr and Mrs Chaplin gave their son all of the support he needed as he decided to follow in their footsteps. (as performers, not mental pissheads)
Young Adolf ’s parents, on the other hand, were less than supportive when, for a brief period, he started singing in a choir and even contemplated becoming a priest. After realising the he was a little too blood thirsty to preach the good book, Hitler took to painting and decided that he wanted to make his mark on the world with a great big metaphorical paintbrush and become an artist.
As soon as he was old enough, Hitler moved to Vienna where he led a bohemian lifestyle and repeatedly got knocked back by The Vienna Academy for Fine Arts who said he was unfit for painting. After his second failed attempt at joining the academy, Hitler’s mother died and as his funding died with her, it wasn’t long before he was homeless.
Whilst Hitler was singing in a choir Chaplin was performing on stage as he toured the country’s music halls with a troop of tap dancers. After abandoning education and signing up to a theatrical agency it wasn’t long before Chaplin was appearing in the West End and getting approached with the exciting prospects of bigger and better things.
During Hitler’s time caught in a downward spiral living on the streets of Vienna as an actual tramp, Chaplin had made the move into film and was rather coincidentally working on his breakthrough character ‘The Tramp’. As mentioned before, it was at this point that Chaplin’s toot hbru sh t ash was b or n.
As Hitler got his life back on track The First World War broke out and he joined the troops to fight for his country. If we are to believe the aforementioned theory, it was at this point that he trimmed his Kaiser moustache into t h e gas mask fitting and much more fear inducing 1/3 moustache. Once this happened it wasn’t long before the tash took over and he went a bit wrong.
So there you have it, as well as having an unnerving amount of parallels between their lives, Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin both had very similar upbringings which makes their almost twin-like appearance the mismatched icing on their funny but also very evil, comedy death cake. What has this told us about their moustaches though?
In all honesty, despite being interesting and trivial, the similarities in the two men’s early lives obviously don’t actually have anything to do with their choice of moustache. However, (this is the clever-ish bit) what I have highlighted through showing these parallels and how they had nothing to do with the two men’s individual and uninfluenced choices to grow this style of facial attire, is that it’s just a moustache! Its not comedy gold and it’s not the root of all evil. Chaplin wasn’t even that funny, he was a little too desperate to please if anything, and as for Hitler . . . well, he was pretty evil actually but it wasn’t because of the moustache! It was because he was wrong in the head. It is at this point that I have to ask why this is not ok . . . ?
Yes, t h is is a p i c tu re of me s p o r ti n g the toothbrush moustache and it’s not ok. I have no doubt about the fact that it is not socially acceptable for me to go out looking like this but I can’t help thinking that it should be. The reason that this is seen as wrong is that when people see that line of hair they instantly think ‘Hitler!’ How do they know that I’m not paying homage to my favorite comedy icon? (we have already established that I wouldn’t be as I don’t like the fella but that’s beside the point)
Why has this moustache become the root of all evil in so many peoples eyes? Why does this inch of hair suddenly make me an insensitive monster of the highest caliber? Why is it associated with Hitler more so than Chaplin? Chaplin had it first. Chaplin had it longer. Chaplin didn’t kill any Jews. He may not have been as funny as people make out but the guy deserves some recognition! It isn’t even as though Hitler and Chaplin were the only two men to ever have this style of moustache, loads of Germans had it towards the end of the 19th century. Ok, maybe that’s not the best example but me wearing it doesn’t mean I’m a Nazi. Anne Frank’s father had a toothbrush moustache and I’m about 99% sure that he wasn’t a supporter of the Nazi party.
The point is that it’s just a moustache! The hair follicles forming that neatly pruned patch of fuzz on Hitler’s upper lip were not burrowing through his skull and into his brain telling him to gather up all the Jews before gassing them to death, he did that because he felt like it. Hitler is the root of all evil, not the moustache. The moustache isn’t comedy gold either and as we have established neither was Chaplin. In fact I’d go as far as saying that Chaplin’s only the third best entertainer of all time to sport a moustache, I mean h on est ly, h ow c o u l d yo u fo r g e t th e s e two . . . ?
Adam Cale
T H E TO OT H B R U S H TA S H Comedy gold or the root of all evil?
The toothbrush moustache is probably the most iconic style of facial hair to ever grace the lip of man but why has such a classic tash become an all but extinct species in our modern day society? T h i s b ook aims to look at how two very different men pioneered the style and how this eventually led to its regrettable demise.