A chinface, sometimes referred to as a chinhead, chinman,chin puppet, or chinmonster, is a performance, usually of a comical nature, involving someone's chin. By drawing or attaching eyes, it gives the impression of a distorted face when viewed upside down.
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Origins
In 1964, Bob Denver performed a chin puppet in the beach party film, "For Those Who Think Young". In 1988, McEwans Lager launched a new TV ad campaign featuring 'The Chinheads', a fictional and quirky 'upside-down' rock/soul band. The award-winning TV advert was directed by Steve Baron (Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' & A-Ha's 'Take On Me') and featured the track 'Something So Real' by Scottish band, The Love Decree. A single was subsequently released in 1989 and charted nationally, peaking at No.61 (No.1, Outselling Black Box's 'Ride On Time' in Scotland). Ben Elton's 1990 television show The Man From Auntie featured several chinface performances. In 1993, an episode of Red Dwarf, Gunmen of the Apocalypse, used chinface when the crew had to convince a ship of simulants (artificially created, cyborg humanoids) that there were no humans aboard, insisting instead that the ship was crewed by curry-based lifeforms known as "Vindaloovians".
Popular culture
Since video hosting sites have become available on the internet, chinface videos have become increasingly common. In the mid–1990s, Kraft Canada released TV ads for Kraft Dinner featuring various people performing chinfaces and eating the product. The video game You Don't Know Jack featured as an ending to Volume 4 (The Ride) footage showing part of the hosts' faces. The character Guy Towers is portrayed as a chin face, with oversized glasses. Disc 4 of the Jackass DVD Box Set features Chris Pontius performing a chinface of a "Latvian Gangster" during a running of the Gumball 3000. They Might Be Giants' first video, for their song "Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head", features one of them doing the chinface, with a xeroxed picture of his eyes placed on his chin. In the Atomic Brain episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mike Nelson demonstrates to the 'bots a "chin puppet". He says that the tradition is "fun...whimsical"; Crow counters that it is "odd and disturbing".
See also
External links
- Bob Denver
- Make Me King - YMCA Chinface
- Chin Man
- Chin Face collection
