Axidunce cartoon: Watch out! Live wire!
Pen cartoon: a worker in a dunce cap labelled 'AXIDUNCE' stands in water holding up a finger toward a bare live wire with sparks, beside a sign 'Watch out! Live wire!'. The invented label 'Axidunce' casts careless workers as helpers of the Axis by mockery, with a fear-appeal in the sparking wire.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information, cartoon by Leo
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Labor, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-441K (NAID 513909).
Text on the object
WATCH OUT! LIVE WIRE! AXIDUNCE [imprint:] OWI-1985 [signature:] Leo FOR OWI
