alfred e. neuman, before being picked up by MAD – some interesting history there.

“Nineteenth-century publications [...] depicted the typical Irish immigrant as a bomb-throwing cretin barely distinguishable from the adult ape …. Versions of the face were used as medical pictures of people with deficiency diseases or hormone imbalances; the faces of patients with Williams syndrome have been compared to Neuman … Neuman’s image was also used negatively, as a “supporter” of rival political candidates, with the idea that only an idiot would vote for them“

also used in Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda