# why do the characters of Spy vs. Spy have pointy faces? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002 "2005-01-16T06:51:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002/21 "2005-01-18T14:45:27Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > I remember a letter to the editors at _Mad Magazine_ from a detail-minded reader who pointed out the the fights went for the white spy, about 60-40. > > They ridiculed him, of course. > > This doesn’t count the gray spy, who routinely won every battle that involved her. ``` I remember reading a letter where a reader noticed the same thing. Prohias admitted that he probably favored the white spy because he was easier to draw. ``` ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002/22 "2005-01-18T15:19:45Z")
This will show my ignorance, but I had no idea that there was a comic of Spy Vs. Spy. I just knew it from the old Nintendo game. I liked the game, for the record. ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002/23 "2005-01-18T16:56:34Z")
I loved that game! I used to play it on the C-64. ---
**Author:** ![audreyayn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@audreyayn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audreyayn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002/24 "2005-01-18T17:22:07Z")
The spies are purposely non-human and exactly alike in order to be generic and without bias. You can’t guess their ethnicity or nationality, they don’t have one. Basically, the same reason for the 50-50 win ratio. I’ve never seen one of the Grey Lady toons. (And I still don’t know what’s up with the soda ads.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002/25 "2005-01-18T18:04:48Z")
Aside from the look’s singularity and graphic impact, Prohias was possibly inspired by Venetian Carnival masks, capes, and hats: From [Festivals.com](http://festivals.com/01-02-february/carnival/cloaked.cfm): “One of the more traditional Carnival costume consists of a long black cloak called a tabarro, and a bauto, a white partial-mask with a long, pointy nose. A black hood made of silk or lace covers the head and shoulders and the disguise is topped off with a three-cornered hat. It is still worn today.” [check out one style of Medieval-pointy hats (top pic, left)](http://www.aurumxxl.com/carnival/index.htm), very different (but also rather Prohias-like) from the traditional tri-cornered hat associated with Venetian Carnival. [A pic of a pointy bird-beak mask (scroll to second-from-bottom).](http://ombra.net/carnevale-di-venezia/index.php?hlangs=en) (Also note that although the hats vary tremendously in style, size and shape, that many are wide-brimmed, although topped with feathers, boa feathers, lace, etc., as opposed to Prohias’ spies’ hats having a more clean-lined, modern look.) Here’s a [listing of dozens of established Carnival roles](http://www.carnivalofvenice.com/argomento.asp?cat=16) from the 18th C.: **“street assassin”** is one of the personnae (no pics of these various roles, though). Another role is listed as **“plague doctor”** … which [this pic’s caption](http://www.carnivalofvenice.com/argomento.asp?cat=16) suggests is signified by the familiar “bird mask” (nice pic of masks). [This makes sense: going from memory here, wasn’t the beak originally filled with pungent potpourri, or perfumed cloth, or whatnot, during the actual plagues?] Where Prohias’ spies break with the classic Carnival look is in their hats. Prohias drew his spies’ hats as a sort of flamboyantly modified homburg, with a masculine, modern crown and band, but a wildly exaggerated, feminine brim. The brim is so wide, it suggests the hats worn by rice peasants in Indochina. It also recalls the stylish hat which Audrey Hepburn wore, paired with the perfect black dress and accessorized with a long cigarette holder, in **Breakfast at Tiffany’s**. Oddly enough, “Breakfast” was made in 1961, the same year Prohias’ “Spy vs. Spy” debuted in MAD. Perhaps there was a fashion trend using a sort of black-and-white minimalism and angularity in general, that was becoming popular then… ---
**Author:** ![Kaotic\_Newtral](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@Kaotic\_Newtral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaotic_Newtral)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002/26 "2005-01-18T18:39:14Z")
> [@ggurl](#): > > I thought they were birds. Yep, I’m in the same camp. I’d never even thought about it before, they just look like…um…birds to me. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002/27 "2005-01-18T22:34:56Z")
> [@audreyayn](#): > > (And I still don’t know what’s up with the soda ads.) Ever since the Cold War ended, the spying biz ain’t what it used to be. Gotta get a paycheck somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002/28 "2005-01-19T01:41:34Z")
> [@Kaspar Hauser](#): > > I loved that game! I used to play it on the C-64. I hated it. What the hell was the point of it? And that stupid boxing glove on the spring… grar. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002/29 "2005-01-19T02:34:36Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > I never thought that the _images_ were caricatures of any particular persons or ideology; their absolute antithesis (black vs. white) was simply a witness to the often unthinking opposition of the forces involved in the Cold War. > > I suspect that the pointy noses were simply a style used by Prohias, but I have not been able to find any of his work from his days in Cuba to confirm this. > > Perhaps someone in **Cafe Society** will be able to provide further information. To make them – [ul] [li]simple to draw[/li][li]distinct in appearance from any other characters that might appear in the strip, therefore focusing attention on _them_[/li][li]Hi **Opal**![/li][li]To make them utterly indistinguishable from each other, except for the arbitrary coloration. Prohas was trying to say that you can’t tell one group of viscious men from another without a scorecard.[/li][/ul] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-characters-of-spy-vs-spy-have-pointy-faces/285002.md?page=1)