Making a jackass out of a person being photographed

Factual Questions
1

We’ve all seen it: Someone is trying to take a picture and a third-grader, or someone with a third-grade mentality, holds up index and middle fingers behind a subject’s head. Funny. Ha Ha Ha. :rolleyes:

Now a few questions:

How far back does this particular act go? (Presumably the dawn of photography would be the limit.)

What’s it supposed to mean? I’ve always assumed that the fingers were supposed to resemble ears, thus making the person a “jackass.” And it might, with some imagination. Personally, I think it makes them look more like Uncle Martin.

Is this strictly a regional or American thing?

2

I always thought they were “rabbit ears”.

Of course, the goal was the same: make someone look like a goof in the picture.

3

Or to add “Devil’s Horns”!

4

Devil’s horns, at least, that is what it meant at the Catholic schools I attended.

5

Another old-timey meaning is “the horns of the cuckold,” in other words, the person holding up the fingers is joking that the victim’s spouse is adulterous. This “horns” business is prominent in Spain. When the Olympics were in Spain, and the US basketball “dream team” was full of Chicago Bulls, the marketers were surprised that Bulls gear sales did not jump in Spain. The reason was that the Bulls trademark would have marked the wearer as a guy whose wife was fooling around.