Here's why it likely caught on:
* Visual Analogy: The most obvious reason is the visual resemblance. Both eyebrows and mustaches are strips of hair that frame prominent facial features.
* Humor and Novelty: The term is inherently funny because it's unexpected and plays on the idea of facial features having corresponding "brows."
* Descriptive: While not a standard term, "mouth brows" does effectively describe what a mustache looks like.
* Wordplay: The term relies on the established understanding of "eyebrows" to create a new, playful descriptor.
In short, mustaches are called "mouth brows" due to their visual similarity to eyebrows, the humor derived from the analogy, and the descriptive, albeit unconventional, nature of the term.