From the Mona Lisa to the Mona Lisa Holding Her Nose: A Short History of Art Parody

People sometimes assume making fun of a masterpiece is a modern, slightly cheeky invention. It is not. Mocking great art is a tradition almost as old as great art itself — with a far more respectable résumé than you'd guess.

Exhibit A: the man who drew a mustache on the Mona Lisa

In 1919, Marcel Duchamp — a serious artist, in galleries and everything — took a postcard of the Mona Lisa and added a mustache and a goatee. He titled it L.H.O.O.Q., a string of letters that, read aloud in French, becomes a joke far too rude to print here.

The point: one of the most influential artists of the 20th century looked at the most famous painting in the world and thought, what this needs is a mustache. Parody wasn't vandalism. It was commentary — and it was funny.

Why we keep poking the classics

Great paintings have become wallpaper — we've seen them ten thousand times. A good parody does something sneaky: it makes you look again. See the Mona Lisa pinching her nose, and you suddenly notice the original's expression all over again. That's not disrespect — it's the highest form of paying attention.

Our "holding their nose" collection

That's the whole spirit of our parodies: take a face everyone recognizes — the Mona Lisa, Whistler's Mother, Girl with a Pearl Earring, American Gothic — and tilt it just enough to make you grin.

The serious point hiding in the silly one

Humour does what a lecture can't: it disarms you, then it makes you think. A funny poster isn't lowbrow — it's a hundred-year-old tradition that happens to make your guests laugh.

So next time someone raises an eyebrow at your nose-pinching Mona Lisa, you can tell them, perfectly truthfully: it's a Duchampian gesture, actually.

See the parodies that started it for us → Shop classical art parodies