Fez (hat) - in Western Popular Culture

In Western Popular Culture

In contemporary Western media, the fez may serve as a semantic prop to imply that its wearer is very much "off duty" (e.g. a cartoon character may be pictured wearing a fez whilst lying in a hammock in some exotic location, or just relaxing after a hard day of work). This detail is possibly a nostalgic reference, reminiscent of a Victorian English eccentricity in which gentlemen were frequently, and stereotypically depicted (e.g. Punch cartoons of the period 1875–90) wearing a loose-fitting robe smoking jacket and braided fez-like smoking cap when relaxing informally at home. This custom was referred to as "wearing mufti" and originated from British Army officers and public servants opting to wear Indian dress of that period in the more leisurely setting of their homes. The dress was more comfortable in the Indian climate and created a sense of ease and relaxation such that the clothing, not unlike that of an Islamic scholar or mufti, came into the English language as a word meaning 'out of uniform' or pertaining to their being out of their formal role. A not unrelated semantic role is to represent the long tradition of the Muslim east as exotic and mysterious.

• The Shriners are notable for wearing fezzes.
• The character Howard Cunningham wore a fez as a member of the fictional fraternity The Leopard Lodge on the television series Happy Days. It was leopard skin with a tassel.
• In Simpsons creator Matt Groening's long-running comic strip Life in Hell, identical gay couple Akbar and Jeff wear fezzes, which factor prominently in their comedic emotional responses, e.g. by flying off when one is surprised.
• The British comedian-magician Tommy Cooper always wore a red fez during his act.
• Morocco Mole, the companion/sidekick of Secret Squirrel, is famously always clad in a fez.
• The BBC show, Doctor Who, has shown a few fezzes during its time. Some fez sightings include The Seventh Doctor in the 1988 episode, "Silver Nemesis" (Season 25), The Eighth Doctor in the 2003 Doctor Who comic, "Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game", and most notably, The Eleventh Doctor, who sports a fez in the 2010 episode, "The Big Bang". When asked "What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?" by River Song he answered, "It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool", to which it was promptly destroyed by Amy Pond and River. Later in the episode, the Doctor wakes up to find himself not wearing a fez, to which he says that he can buy one, after feeling his head. Then in the episode 'Death is the Only Answer' he comes into possession of a fez owned by Albert Einstein.
• In Disney's Aladdin (1992), The Return of Jafar (1994) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), and on television in Aladdin: the Animated Series, Aladdin, wears a red Fez on his head.
• Eclectic jazz-rock band "Steely Dan" have a song titled "The Fez".
• Grunkle Stan, one of the main characters in Gravity Falls TV series is notable for wearing a fez virtually all the time.
• The Firesign Theatre's character, Rocky Rococo (played by Philip Proctor), is typically portrayed wearing a fez.
• John Rhys-Davies wears a fez as Sallah in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade