Mutt and Jeff were the comic strip characters Augustus Mutt and Jim Jeffries, in U.S. cartoonist Henry Conway ("Bud") Fisher's San Francisco Chronicle strip, which debuted in 1907. Used allusively from 1917 in reference to 'a pair of stupid men, affable losers,' or to one tall (Mutt) and one short (Jeff). In some ways they were a precursor to Laurel and Hardy. Two working-class everymen - drinking, gambling, and getting in trouble with their wives. The strip was originally called 'Mr. Mutt' but Jeff was later added. Mutt was a tall, lanky man with a penchant for horse racing, while Jeff was short and fat.