Judge, 1898-10-29 · page 16 of 16
Judge — October 29, 1898 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This two-panel cartoon depicts a racist narrative about a football game between two African American teams: "Blackville" and "Coontown." The left panel shows Blackville players mocking Coontown's arriving team as weak and effeminate. The right panel reveals the twist: Coontown's players are actually formidable athletes who intimidate Blackville, "putting them out of business." The satire relies on dehumanizing caricature and the slur-laden language typical of late-19th/early-20th-century minstrelsy-influenced humor. The joke hinges on subverting expectations—the underestimated team proves superior—but the entire premise treats African Americans as objects of ridicule. This reflects Judge magazine's racist editorial perspective of the era, where such content was considered acceptable entertainment for white audiences.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘When the visiting Coontown foot-ball eleven entered the dressing-room the Blackville boys almost died of laughter at sight of the ‘* bunch of chappies ” and effeminate-looking ‘* things ” that Coontown had to represent them—they were voted to a man asa ‘ lead-pipe cinch.”—— 2 ROON | 4 —But they were paralyzed to a man when this bunch of “hot babies ¢ dressing-room and lined up for their club yell. WHAT PUT THE BLACKVILLE TEAM OUT OF BUSINESS. COPTONTIGDS BY ARKELL PUBLISHING COMPAMY OF NEW YORK. comicbooks.com