What is the origin of the image of a poor person wearing a wooden barrel?
<blink>WAG Alert! WAG Alert!</blink>
Wooden barrels were common place in the 1800’s. In old B&W films, you see water barrels on every street corner, especially in the west.
Much like a homeless or otherwise poor person today would use what was around him and make due, it seems the easiest thing for someone lacking to grab a barrel.
Yer pal,
Satan
Whats a “WAG” anyhow?
WAG = Wild Ass Guess
as opposed to
SWAG = Silly/Stupid Wild Ass Guess
I’ve heard that conjecture before and it makes sense up to a point. But did people ever actually WEAR them? I mean, yeah, people sometimes sleep in cardboard boxes today, but they don’t commonly wear them. Could it just be a theatrical device, like a vaudeville sight gag?