Chinface

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A typical chinface.

A chinface, sometimes referred to as a chinhead or chinman, 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.

1 Origins
2 Popular culture
3 Making a Chinface
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Origins

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".

[edit] 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.

[edit] Making a Chinface

Making a chinface can be as easy as drawing two eyes on your chin. However, with a little imagination, all kinds of faces and costumes can be created. Some chinface artists choose, for example, to use discarded animal eyes for authenticity. See the photograph above, where genuine rabbit eyes are utilised. Although a number of chinface actors choose to lie on their back for filming, it is much easier to turn the video camera upside down. Note that this will affect the direction in which chinfaces are looking if the pupils of their eyes are affected by gravity.