Well? It’s a common stereotype. Just look at Goofy from Mickey Mouse or Zero from Beetle Bailey.
OK, this is a WAG, but it probably came about because people with severe mental retardation often retain habits that push teeth out of alignment. Things such as thumb-sucking or allowing the tongue to protrude, push the teeth forward, and even a mild tendency to be slack-jawed reduces the pressure of the lips against teeth enough to allow them to mis-align.
I’d equate it with thespians dressing like that, and the early cartoonists drawing people and groups of people with the big buck teeth, or broken and misalligned to add to the repulsion of the characters, they wished to degrade. It usually included a total package of bad teeth, bad eyes, bad clothes and not being able to read, because they were uneducated, and they were the latest of a family with inferior genes. Look at some early cartoons or movies in the archives.
Don’t use the links if you can’t handle the stereotypical portrayals of groups of people.
Here is a Beety Boop short film that is typical of the genere. It has the Hatfields of fame in it. The cartoonist was getting pressure from the mountain folks about his immoral content. He just then happens to produce this.
Betty Boop: Musical Mountaineers : Max Fleischer : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
A listing of more such archives.
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=betty%20boop%20AND%20mediatype%3Amovies
That first clip was very…special. :eek:
I doubt there’s a factual answer about the exact origin of this stereotype, so I don’t feel bad about adding my nonfactual $0.02: I think that Harmonious Discord is on the right track, but without the thespian angle. My guess would be that, in days of yore, only the wealthy could afford dentistry or education, and the two become conflated.
I will add to the first two answer saying that people with mental retardation are also less likely to receive corrective treatment for cosmetic issues. Not only is their appearance “less important” but also the procedures and treatments are less likely to have good follow-through without a ton of parental intervention. Cite: WAG+IME
Does Edgar Bergan’s (That would be Candice’s dad for all you young whippersnappers) Mortimer Snerd character predate the other references? I know that this deeply ingrained the bucktoothed=stupid stereotype for my parent’s generation.
No, that’s not quite right. Down’s Syndrome often affects the jaw and palate. Children with downs can also have delayed development with respect to their teeth. (Eg/ they may not start teething until they’re almost two years old and not have a full set until they’re three).
Because their mouths are small than normal, their tongues may protrude or they’ll have the “slack-jawed” look. It also affects speech to some degree because their tongues are too big.
It has a lot less to do with retaining thumb-sucking “habits” than actual physical differences.
IIRC one of the traits of Down Syndrome is that the tongue is enlarged, which may well cause the person to hold their mouths slightly open. This would tend to reveal buck teeth, if present, and could also be the origin of the “stupid mouth-breather” concept.
I’m not sure if my previous post sounded snippy or not, but just in case it came across that way, please note: I am the proud godfather of a beautiful, 5-year-old gilr with Down’s. Her teeth are totally going to finance her dentist’s kids’ college education. No doubt.
The “slack-jawed simpleton” and the afrementioned “mouthbreather” stereotypes, like Cletus on The Simpsons, wherein the dimwit has some kind of overbite, is probably a reflection of the receded chin of Down’s Syndrome (and the stereotype kind of annoys me).