Judge — March 7, 1903 — page 18: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This six-panel comic strip follows a recurring character named Unlucky Luke through automotive mishaps. In panel 1, Luke seeks employment as a chauffeur, boasting of past experience driving a "two-thousand horse-power auto for the king of England." Panels 2-4 show him attempting to operate a car with multiple passengers, who crowd into the vehicle. Panel 5 depicts a violent crash—the car has collided catastrophically. Panel 6 shows Luke fired from his job "just as I was learnin' how to work it!" The satire targets early-1900s automobile culture and the comic incompetence of working-class aspirants. Luke's claimed aristocratic credentials prove worthless; his boasts about royal service don't translate to actual skill. The joke relies on slapstick physical comedy and the irony of failure despite prior claims of expertise—a common theme in period humor mocking social pretension and the chaos of emerging automobile technology.