Posted on 05/30/2026 6:41:10 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Americans long have leavened their powerful global image with goofiness, a cheerful confidence that can deflect international wonder over certain strains of ignorance into a smile.
Behold, for example, the cheesehead hat.
Made of sofa foam and sunny yellow defiance, the hat was created in the late 1980s in response to the taunting faced by supporters of sports teams in Wisconsin, which has long called itself America’s dairyland.
“Cheeseheads!” residents of neighboring Illinois said. The insult was embraced and, yes, turned on its head — particularly in the realm of a certain football team named the Green Bay Packers.
Soon, Wisconsin sports fans were appearing at events wearing the hats shaped like large, dimpled wedges of cheddar.
This doesn’t mean that a single state has a lock on silly hats, though the “Wisconsin Cheesehead” is now included in the Smithsonian’s American History Museum. U.S. sports — college sports especially — bounces with fans who throw inhibition aside and put on horns or animal ears, or strip off shirts and paint their torsos even in freezing weather.
The seasonal display is perhaps the most colorful, and harmless, of the “Hold my beer” exuberance that’s defined generations of Americans at home and overseas.
We are loud. We do dumb things. We are tribal in ways both superficial (sports) and significant (the current political landscape).
We have a pretty good record of stumbling into greatness. “I wasn’t thinking too deeply about it,” the creator of the cheesehead hat, Ralph Bruno, once told Milwaukee magazine about his inspiration, which is now trademarked, owned by a professional football team and sells for $28.99 apiece.
Above all — literally, with this towering block of fake cheese that just might be a metaphor — Americans are known for being able to laugh at ourselves.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
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I was at Super Bowl XXX in Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ to see the Steelers and Cowboys. Yes, I was wearing a Rams shirt I purchased for the occasion. (It didn’t say St. Louis or Los Angeles, as they had moved, but without permission).
What were a few rows in from of me but a couple of cheeseheads. It was mainly amusing, but blocked my view of some sideline plays.
I almost wanted to quote Bugs Bunny in the movie theatre:
“Pardon me, madam, would you mind taking off your hat?”
Of course, hunting is a big deal in Wisconsin, so Elmer Fudd might have been sitting under that cheesehead for all I know.
A term first applied to the Dutch in Europe: "Kaaskop."
Here in my state we have something similar called the corn head. If you happen to watch a University of Nebraska sporting event on TV, you will undoubtedly see multiple fans sporting this fine peace of head-wear which is a large foam corn cob. I would post a photo but I lack the html skills to do so.
Interesting. Quite fitting. ;)
To wear , just put your head into the corn hole!
Just got the munchies and darn if I can figure out why! Thanks ever so much!
First time I got to attend an NFL game where Green Bay was involved, the Cheesehead headgear from some fans was expected.
But a dude dressed as a Lombardi Packers Pope wasn’t on my bingo card.
Grew up in Northern Illinois and born a Bears fan, went to college in Wisconsin. We called Wisconsiners “cheeseheads”. They called us “flatlanders”, or used the rather crude acronym “FIB”. A friendly rivalry sustained by Bears and Packers fans.
Cheers!
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