Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Chad (graffiti)
Chad was an ubiquitous piece of popular culture graffiti often seen in the United Kingdom during and shortly after World War II.
The graffiti consisted of a cartoon of a small, round head with a long nose poking over the top of a wall, with a complaint about shortages written underneath; the cartoon itself is better known to many as "Kilroy", since it often accompanied the slogan "Kilroy was here".
The origins appear to lie with the cartoonist George Edward Chatterton - or "Chat" - in 1938, although it is unclear how it gained widespread popularity, or how it came to be conflated with Kilroy. It was, however, widely in use by the late part of the war and in the immediate post-war years, with slogans ranging from the simple - "What, no bread?" or "Wot, no char?" - to the plaintive; one sighting, on the side of a British 1st Airborne Division glider in Operation Market Garden, had the complaint "Wot, no engines?"
As the prevalence of rationing died down, so did the joke; whilst the cartoon is occasionally sighted today as "Kilroy", "Chad" - and his complaints - have long fallen from popular use.
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