Nick Bougas, the racist cartoonist behind the infamous “Happy Merchant” caricature, has died at 71.

In a remarkable coincidence, and completely unbeknownst to JBN, Bougas reportedly died the same day JBN released a musical parody that flipped the script on his hateful creation, using the “Happy Merchant” to expose the absurdity of blaming Jews for the world’s problems.

Bougas created overtly racist, antisemitic, homophobic and anti-feminist cartoons under the pseudonym “A. Wyatt Mann,” a play on the words “a white man.” His work first appeared in WAR, the white-supremacist newspaper operated by notorious racist Tom Metzger.

His cartoons attacked Jews, Black people, gay people, feminists and other minorities. Although Bougas never publicly admitted that he was “A. Wyatt Mann,” multiple former associates identified him as the artist.

His most notorious creation, the “Happy Merchant,” portrayed a Jewish man with grotesquely exaggerated features, a sinister grin and hands rubbing together, promoting the antisemitic lie that Jews are greedy, manipulative and secretly controlling the world. It later became one of the internet’s most widely circulated antisemitic memes.

We would never suggest that JBN’s parody caused him to croak. But if flipping his hateful creation against him helped send him over the edge, we certainly won’t lose any sleep over it.