Laughing Cow came from a war joke.
Illustrator Benjamin Rabier drew a laughing ox for French army meat trucks. A soldier dubbed it “La Wachkyrie,” mocking German Valkyrie emblems. “Wachkyrie” sounds like “la vache qui rit” — the laughing cow. Léon Bel later used the name for his 1921 cheese and had Rabier draw it. That trench joke now anchors the Bel Group, which brings in around €3.8 billion a year.
Laughing Cow on Brandseum