History Main / CuckoldHorns

* In ''Literature/RallyRoundTheFlagBoys'', Harry Bannerman, who feels guilty about his affair with his boss's wife, imagines twelve-foot horns protruding from his boss's forehead at one moment when his boss angrily strikes up a conversation with him on a subject that turns out to be completely irrelevant.

* A comic by Creator/WalterMoers has a man (depicted literally wearing horns) s doing a walk and wonders why he always has to leave when his wife's brother is visiting her. In a later scene he wonders why she's wearing sexy underwear for her brother, but not for him. Then he remembers that she has no brother - and still doesn't make the connection, only thinking "women are odd".

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* One adaptation of Offenbach's "La Belle Héléne" (a parody of [[UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar Helen's seduction and kidnapping by Paris]]) has Menelaus present the crown of laurels to Paris as a symbol of victory. When Menelaus wears them, it's unfortunately tilted so it looks remarkably like cuckold's horns.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Robert Baratheon wears a CrownOfHorns and has an unfaithful wife, though the effect is dialed down as he's not exactly a paragon of fidelity himself in that he's far more unfaithful and publicly so than she is, and at least one of his bastard children survive where none of hers does. It even gets HarsherInHindsight when you realize his very betrothed, Lyanna Stark, is revealed to have never loved him, choosing his ArchEnemy Rhaegar over him. In the books, in ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'', Ned Stark remembers a conversation he had with Lyanna, with the latter complaining that Robert cheated on her during her engagement and fathered a bastard in the Vale, Mya Stone. Ned insisted that Robert would change after marriage, but Lyanna replied that "Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature."

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Robert Baratheon wears a CrownOfHorns and has an unfaithful wife, not that he's exactly a paragon of fidelity himself.

* One adaptation of Offenbach's "La Belle Héléne" (a parody of [[TheTrojanWar Helen's seduction and kidnapping by Paris]]) has Menelaus present the crown of laurels to Paris as a symbol of victory. When Menelaus wears them, it's unfortunately tilted so it looks remarkably like cuckold's horns.

** In ''Theatre/TroilusAndCressida'', Troilus jokes in the opening scene that Menelaus (whose wife is living with Paris) has only wounded Paris with his horns, and Thersites later cheers on the duel between Menelaus and his "cuckold-maker" as a fight between a bull and a dog.

* French marquess [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Henri_de_Pardaillan_de_Gondrin Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin]] "decorated" his coach with huge horns and antlers, furious that his wife had become Louis XIV's mistress.

* ''AngelsAndDemons'' has a paragraph or two where Langdon notes that the symbology of this ([[DanBrown keeping in mind who wrote it]]) means that it's actually a compliment to the one you're bunny ears-ing's virility.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', King Robert's banner is a stag, which leads to multiple puns when it comes out that his queenly wife cheated on him.
** And the phrase "give him horns" is used a lot. When Lancel Lannister is given an ArrangedMarriage with '[[ReallyGetsAround Gatehouse]]' Ami, it's joked that he needs an armorer to make him a horned helm.

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* [[Fanfic/AdoptionNightmare Brina]] gives these to ''Skulker'' of all characters... It's a miracle she isn't dead yet...
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* In ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', the reporter talking about Augustus Gloop finding the first ticket is first seen like this, the camera having accidentally lined him up with a stuffed deer head on the wall behind him.

::The husband is amazed. He writes to his mum about that. Soon after, he receives a reply:

* Oberon had these in the ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' story which riffed on AMidsummerNightsDream, because his wife Titania was cheating on him.

A prank in various European and Latin American countries is to surreptitiously hold two fingers behind an unwitting victim's head, giving them cuckold horns. The American variation is the BunnyEarsPicturePrank, which is done with different fingers and doesn't have any negative connotation besides looking funny.

** In ''Theatre/TheRoseTattoo'', after two gossips disclose to Serafina that her late husband had an affair with another women, she angrily and repeatedly denies it, saying that her husband would not have put "the nanny-goat's horns" on her head. There is also an actual goat that is troubling her. (Oddly enough, "corne" and "cornuta" are not among the many GratuitousItalian words used in the play.)

** In ''Theatre/TheRoseTattoo'', after two gossips disclose to Serafina that her late husband had an affair with another women, she angrily and repeatedly denies it, saying that her husband would not have put "the nanny-goat's horns" on her head. There is also an actual goat that is troubling her. (Oddly enough, the Italian words for this are not used.)

* Used in a few Tennessee Williams plays:

* In an episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' that was on this afternoon this is referenced by The Captain when he and his wife are splitting up. He says "I wear the horns of the cuckold" in the belief that she is in love with someone else.

* A comic by WalterMoers has a man (depicted literally wearing horns) s doing a walk and wonders why he always has to leave when his wife's brother is visiting her. In a later scene he wonders why she's wearing sexy underwear for her brother, but not for him. Then he remembers that she has no brother - and still doesn't make the connection, only thinking "women are odd".

* In an episode of ''HowIMetYourMother'' that was on this afternoon this is referenced by The Captain when he and his wife are splitting up. He says "I wear the horns of the cuckold" in the belief that she is in love with someone else.

See also BunnyEarsPicturePrank, HornedHumanoid, WardingGestures, {{Cuckold}}. Contrast CrownOfHorns.

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* The "Hook 'Em Horns" gesture beloved among Texas Longhorns fans is a way of invoking the ''cornuto'' in Italy, and is a very grave insult in that country, to the point where brawls have broken out over it.

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* In Max Shulman's novel ''Rally Round the Flag, Boys!'', Harry Bannerman, who feels guilty about his affair with his boss's wife, imagines twelve-foot horns protruding from his boss's forehead at one moment when his boss angrily strikes up a conversation with him on a subject that turns out to be completely irrelevant.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', cuckold horns are handed out at a performance of Shakespeare in the Park. When a man puts them on and his date starts kissing the man next to her, he says "It works!"

* In Tennessee Williams' play ''The Rose Tattoo'', after two gossips disclose to Serafina that her late husband had an affair with another women, she angrily and repeatedly denies it, saying that her husband would not have put "the nanny-goat's horns" on her head. There is also an actual goat that is troubling her.
** In ''Camino Real'' Casanova has become a LadykillerInLove, having fallen for Marguerite from [[AlexandreDumas La Dame aux Camelias]] and is crowned "King of the Cuckolds" during the festival. He weeps and shouts "Cornuto!" over and over.