Paul Ryan wants to be more than just Speaker of the House of Representatives. He wants to be a cool Speaker of the House of Representatives, and he's going pretty far to prove it to you. Yesterday, one month into his new gig, the republican speaker posted a picture of himself to Instagram with the following caption.

"Waiting on confirmation from the House Historian, but apparently, I’m the first Speaker to sport a beard in about 💯 years."

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Before posting his not-so-humble brag to Instagram, Speaker Ryan tweeted this:

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He teased his own beard. Then, just to make sure he'd get the attention his week old scruff deserved, he tweeted at the House Historian for historical confirmation. In other words he asked them to fact check his beard.

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It turns out he's right—sort of. He is the first Speaker of the House to sport facial hair on the job since 1925 (that would be 90 years). But he also referred to his facial hair as a beard when what is on his face would best be described as "scruff". That thing won't be a full beard for at least another two weeks. Now, Frederick H. Gillett and Joseph Cannon, the last two bearded speakers, those guys possessed beards we'd absolutely deem worthy of a 💯 emoji. (Side note to Paul and/or his social media team: The 💯 emoji doesn't signify years or anything else you can count except points.)

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Look, it's no secret that we at GQ love beards, and we really love seeing guys—Paul Ryan included—trying out a new look. But the spectacle surrounding this makes it hard to believe that the Speaker is actually experimenting with his personal style and not trying to make an obvious media play. It's the eye-roll-inducing style move equivalent to your father showing up to dinner on a skateboard. If two weeks from now Ryan's rocking a full frontier-level beard, then we'll talk.

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