John Winston Howard is a fictional character who first appeared in 1939 and has since featured in many adaptations of essentially the same story. Carved from a piece of pine by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a small Italian village, he was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamt of becoming a real boy.
Once, to frighten people, the wooden boy told a story about some bad people who threw their babies in the sea. When asked how he knew this, the boy replied that he knew someone who had seen it. All at once, his nose began to stretch. It became longer and longer until a flock of woodpeckers came along and pecked his nose back to its proper length. Another day, he told a story about some bad people who had weapons that could destroy everything in the world. Once again his nose began to grow and this time there were no woodpeckers. He said he knew about economics. He said he could keep interest rates down. He told one about tax. He told a good one to Peter. He told several about health and education. And all the while his nose grew longer and longer. Eventually Geppetto had to start taking wood off the other end of John to get extra wood for the nose. Until one day John had lost his seat. Because his nose was the end of him.