Bouffonneries de l'Exposition par Cham

This French satirical pamphlet mocks the Paris Exposition through comic scenes and caricature. The cover depicts figures in a boat—likely commenting on the fair's attractions or the crowds themselves—rendered in the tradition of Honoré Daumier's popular lithographed commentary on urban life and public spectacle. Published by Michel Lévy in Paris, such penny-dreadful satires descended directly from 18th-century print satire: Hogarth's narrative sequences, Gillray's political volleys, and the German Bilderbogen broadsheets that combined text and image for working-class audiences. By the 1860s, this format—cheap, serialized, visually driven mockery of current events—became the direct ancestor of the comic strip. The exaggerated physiognomies and class-based humor typical of the era reflect period prejudices embedded in popular visual culture.