Don’t look now, but the mustache is making a comeback
Welcome back to Plain English, a lighthearted version. We’re taking a break from some of the serious topics we’ve addressed in the last few weeks to have a little fun. Well, the veggie burger wasn’t serious, but the others lately have been. I’m Jeff and JR is the producer. This is episode 187 and the full complement of resources for this episode is available online at PlainEnglish.com/187.
Coming up today: You’re seeing it more and more. Hollywood actors, sports stars, the people in your neighborhood, maybe even at work: the mustache is back. What was once a novelty, even a joke, is now back in style. And I mean this seriously.
Before we dive in, here’s a quick reminder that we’ve recently launched Plain English Plus+, which is full of extra English learning resources for every episode. To learn more, visit PlainEnglish.com/Plus.
The humble mustache makes a comeback
Quick: what do Australian cyclist Mitch Docker, actor Michael Shannon, singer Mark Wystrach, and soccer star David Beckham have in common? They have all grown a mustache in recent years.
Before we get too far into the content, here, I just want to say I am not in favor of this new fashion trend. I think out of all the possible facial hair combinations, men look best either clean-shaven or with a well-trimmed beard. Besides leaving a few days’ growth on my face, I have never had any intentional facial hair. But I think this trend is here to stay. Last weekend, I saw a friend that I hadn’t seen in a while, and to my surprise, he was sporting a thick, bushy mustache and aviator sunglasses. A coworker of mine at a fairly conservative office is now wearing a mustache, too.
The mustache, I’m afraid, is moving from novelty back into the mainstream. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was commonplace. The civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. had one, as did actor Robert Redford, trusted newsman Walter Cronkite, even the symbol of masculinity (at the time) the Marlboro Man. But times changed, and the 80s were a clean-shaven decade. In the late 90s, goatees were popular. And then, I don’t need to tell you, by the mid-2000s, beards were all the rage. A survey of women in 2018 found that only eight percent of respondents found the mustachioed man to be the most attractive, compared to others with beards or who were clean-shaven.
Lately, there have been two ways to wear a mustache: you could be so famous that you could do whatever you wanted, or you could wear it as a joke. For example, game show host Alex Trebek has long sported a dignified, well-trimmed gray-white mustache, and nobody gave him a hard time. American football player Aaron Rodgers has had one for a while. Actor Sam Elliot used his to convincingly play cowboys and ranchers in the movies.
The other way to wear it is as a joke. For that, just think of Will Ferrell in the movie “Anchorman.” Ridesharing company Lyft, back when it was a plucky startup challenging Uber, used to be known for a comical pink mustache logo, which drivers would post in their windows, or even affix to the fronts of their cars. But Lyft ditched it when it started to mature as a company. A charity in the US called “Movember” encourages men to grow a mustache for the month of November to build awareness for a good cause. The unspoken truth is that a mustache offers a comical way of attracting attention.
But now it’s coming back in style, in an un-ironic way. People are looking to distinguish themselves. Beards are so popular that some men are opting for the mustache to stand out from the crowd. It’s also simpler to maintain than a big lumberjack beard—and probably more comfortable too. It might have something to do with retro movies and television shows. Some of the office workers in Cable Girls, for example, have a traditional mustache. Freddy Mercury, the inspiration for the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, also had one.
An academic paper from 2001 posits that men grow mustaches and other facial hair to appeal to women—I don’t think we needed an academic paper for that. Isn’t that why men do anything? But the author studied the so-called “marriage market” in Britain between 1842 and 1971 and found that when there’s a high supply of single men, mustaches are more popular. He suggests that men grow facial hair to signal their physical strength and social status when they need to differentiate themselves from rivals. If you want to find that paper online, you can search by the author’s name. It was written by the appropriately-named Nigel Barber!
A few other mustache facts for you. The world’s longest mustache is over 4 meters, or 14 feet, and it was officially measured on an Italian television show. It belongs—or belonged—to an Indian man. The British have a long history of warming their upper lips. Until the year 1916, a mustache was required of soldiers in the British army. In England at the beginning of the 20th Century, they had a special spoon for mustachioed men. The spoon would lift your mustache up so that it wouldn’t get in the way of eating soup.
You heard it here first. I’m too busy with Plain English Plus+, but if any of you want to start making the mustache-protective spoon and selling it to Hollywood actors and sports stars, I’d settle for ten percent of the profits.
I’m watching a 200-episode telenovela in my spare time and one of the villains in the episode has a pencil mustache. That’s not even it, it’s almost like a half-pencil mustache, it only covers the lower half of his upper lip. And it just makes him look so evil! Pedro, the mayor of fictional town Aguazul. He’s so evil.
Couple hellos today. Pedro from Brazil is a burger-lover and he hasn’t quite tried a veggie burger yet—maybe some day—but he did send me some videos of himself grilling. Peggy from Hong Kong gave me an on the ground update of the protest activities. I also heard from Bayron from Guatemala, who’s now listening from beautiful Miami, Florida. Finally, Nestor from Hildalgo, Mexico, the home of the world’s best barbacoa and pulque.
Did you have a chance to listen to the fast version of the last episode? We published it on the main podcast feed to give you a sense of the difference between the two speeds. A lot of you have asked for a fast version, so JR and I made sure to include that in the initial feature set of Plain English Plus+. Remember, Plus+ members get access to a special podcast feed on Apple and Android apps that includes the fast version of every episode. So if you enjoyed listening at full speed, I encourage you to check out PlainEnglish.com/Plus and sign up to be a Plus+ member.
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