- [Scott] This video was made possible
by our lovely patrons over at patreon.com/nerdsync.
How are you doing your wonderful nerds?
Scott here for another voiceover video.
And we have a big Archie Comics video,
The History of Archie Comics, coming out soon,
but before we did that I wanted to have
a little bit of a primer and talk about
one important visual aspect of Archie Comics,
and that is Jughead's hat.
I mean what even is it?
I don't...
It looks strange.
Is it a crown?
Is it a beanie?
I don't know.
Well, actually I do because I did a lot of research on it,
and surprisingly it's most likely a fedora.
Even more surprising to me,
is that when Jughead debuted in Pep Comics #22 from 1941,
this style of hat, also known as a whoopee cap,
would have been incredibly common.
You see, back in the early 20th century
it was very common for every adult to always wear a hat.
It would've been as common as putting on shoes
before you left the house.
You just also put on a hat.
A very popular men's hat in the 1920s was the felt fedora.
It was malleable, easy to shape to your own specifications,
and it could roll up at the end of the day
just kinda tucked away.
But at the same time another hat that was popular,
especially with factory workers, was the brimless beanie.
It would allow them to keep their hair
free of all the grease and debris,
and the lack of brim means that
their eyesight wasn't restricted.
And because there must've been an excessive
amount of spare hats,
people used to take these felt fedoras,
invert them, and then crudely chop off the brim
into kind of this jagged, crown shape.
And voila, you've got yourself a brimless beanie
made out of a spare felt fedora you got lying around.
Children of these workers would either receive
these hats as hand-me-downs,
or make their own to emulate their parents.
And surprisingly people thought it looked cool
and fashionable and it became a trend
especially among the youth.
Because I mean hey those are usually the people
that impact culture the most.
Memes an' such.
Boy, that's gonna date this video.
Anyway, this sort of hat started infiltrating
pop culture with various comic strips,
and books, and TV shows.
But reportedly, one of the major influences
was 1938's Angels with Dirty Faces.
And the hat was starting to evolve passed
its haphazardly trimmed fedora origins.
Kids started adorning it with buttons and pins,
and all sorts of things that could
help express their individuality.
It became a form of self expression.
Jughead, himself, even says that his hat makes him special,
it's what makes him unique.
But as the hats went from homemade to mass-produced,
as you can see with this Kellogg's ad
where you can get a beanie and comic book
Comic book buttons!
What?!
How come nobody told me about
I want those!
Somebody send me those we have a PO box.
Send me anything.
I just want stuff.
Either way, sometime around the 1940s or 50s
the fad started to fade.
And it seems to have become a largely forgotten trend
in American culture which is partly why
Jughead's hats might be a little confusing
to a lot of people.
But honestly, it doesn't really help that the comics
themselves have changed the way
the hat looks over the years.
I mean take a look at some of his first appearances.
It's very clearly a beanie with a jagged, spiked brim.
And of course, those classic buttons the dot and the dash,
which we'll touch on in a bit.
But you can see as time went on,
and the style of Archie Comics started to change and evolve,
and artists were given the opportunity
to use visual shorthands,
they just kind of made his hats into a felt crown.
Just a silly little thing that Jughead wears
on his, on his jughead.
Oo, speaking of which, and this honestly sounds
too good to be true, so I'm a little skeptical about it,
but reportedly the people who used to wear
these jagged beanies were called jagheads.
And while it's never been confirmed that
that's where the character got his name from,
some people have made the leap to say it was
probably inspired by that.
You can go ahead and take that with a grain of salt though.
But one thing I do wanna clear up,
and long-time Nerdsync fans will like this,
a little misconception.
Some Archie fans have speculated that
the dot and dash on Jughead's hat
are the Morse code for the letter A.
Well, they didn't speculate that, that is actually true.
But what they're speculating is that was put
there for that reason.
To reference the letter A, mostly for Archie Comics.
And you know what, as much as I love this,
I'm gonna go ahead and say that
I don't buy this for a second.
Not only was it never confirmed,
but also sometimes the dot and the dash are flipped,
sometimes there's different ornaments on there,
maybe two dots, maybe an extra dash.
So, I don't know it doesn't feel like it's purposeful.
But that doesn't stop every single iteration
of Jughead in comics, and even TV shows like Riverdale,
from including this iconic hat.
It's a part of who he is.
Heck, I'll go one further and say that it is not only
the definition of who Jughead is,
but also Archie Comics as a whole.
It's an old, out of style, fashion trend
that he wears confidently and unwaveringly
in the face of change.
When everything else in Archie Comics
becomes updated and modernized,
the hat remains virtually untouched.
As Bart Beaty, author of Twelve Cent Archie,
points out, quote,
"As the decade wore on, Jughead's hat increasingly
"became the very symbol of nostalgia in Riverdale.
"Jughead's hat becomes a metonym not only for the character
"but for the Archie worldview generally," end quote.
Jughead's hat not only shows that he is an independent
thinker uncaring of the current fashion trends,
but it also represents a small persistent slice
of time and culture.
Which is very much what the original Archie Comics was,
until they modernized fairly recently.
Which is what we'll be talking about next time.
I would love it if you stuck around for that.
We're gonna have a special guest on as well.
So, make sure to hit that big sexy Subscribe button,
so you don't miss out on it.
In the meantime, I would love to know
what you guys think about Jughead's hat.
Is it silly?
Is it cool?
Does it even matter 'cause Jughead's
gonna wear it regardless of what you think.
It's very interesting to me.
This video made me interested in hats.
And as always, I want to give a huge shout out
to the wonderful nerds who support our videos
over on Patreon.
They are the only reason these videos can get made.
You guys are truly amazing.
If you're interest in supporting our videos,
you can go to patreon.com/nerdsync.
I would very much appreciate it.
Thank you so much for watching.
We'll see you next week for a new video.
In the meantime, my name is Scott,
reminding you to read between the panels,
and grow smarter through comics.
See ya.
(upbeat electronic music)