‘Happy Merchant’ Creator Nick Bougas, Behind Notorious Antisemitic Meme, Dies at 71

After being extracted from the image comparing Jews and blacks to cockroaches, the caricature was used repeatedly on antisemitic posts.

By Shula Rosen

Nick Bougas, an American filmmaker and illustrator identified by investigative journalists as the artist behind the notorious antisemitic “Happy Merchant” image and other racist cartoons published under the pseudonym “A. Wyatt Mann,” has died at 71.

Bougas was linked by researchers to the A. Wyatt Mann name, a play on the phrase “a white man,” which appeared on explicitly racist, antisemitic, homophobic and anti-feminist cartoons in the early 1990s.

The cartoons initially appeared in WAR, a white supremacist newspaper operated by Tom Metzger. Among them was a cartoon comparing Jews and blacks to cockroaches that included an exaggerated caricature of a Jewish man.

The Jewish figure was subsequently cropped from the larger cartoon and circulated independently online. The image, which became known as the “Happy Merchant,” depicts a Jewish man with exaggerated facial features, a sinister grin and his hands rubbing together.

The caricature promotes longstanding antisemitic stereotypes portraying Jews as greedy and manipulative and claiming they secretly control society.

It eventually became one of the most widely circulated antisemitic memes on the internet and has appeared in numerous antisemitic posts online.

Bougas worked as both an illustrator and filmmaker, but his connection to the A. Wyatt Mann cartoons became a prominent part of his public legacy as the images spread far beyond their original publication.

The “Happy Merchant” in particular took on a life separate from the original cartoon in which it appeared.

After being extracted from the image comparing Jews and blacks to cockroaches, the caricature was repeatedly reproduced and adapted for online antisemitic propaganda.

Bougas’ reported authorship of the A. Wyatt Mann cartoons tied him to a collection of material targeting multiple groups, with Jews, blacks, gay people and women among the subjects of the drawings.