Judge — June 19, 1897 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This four-panel comic satirizes Jones's Celebrated Bitters, a patent medicine marketed as an appetite stimulant. The joke tracks a man named Smith who uses the bitters while fishing. **The premise:** Smith buys the bitters to stimulate his appetite (panel 1), his wife recommends he take it fishing so he won't lose his "dose" (panel 2). The satirical payoff: the bitters supposedly work so well that the *fish* become hungry too (panels 3-4), resulting in abundant catches. **The satire:** This mocks the exaggerated health claims of patent medicines common in the early 1900s. By suggesting the bitters influence the fish's behavior—absurdly extending the medicine's supposed powers—Judge ridicules the implausible marketing promises made to gullible consumers. The humor relies on readers recognizing these medicines' fraudulent advertising as obvious nonsense.