Judge — December 24, 1904 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This 1904 page contains two separate satirical comics: **"Plenty of Nerve"** (top): An editor rejects a poet's Christmas submission, sarcastically suggesting the poet has enough audacity to perform as a "loop-the-loop artist" (a circus acrobat doing dangerous aerial loops). The joke: the poet's confidence in bad work is comparable to the fearlessness required for death-defying stunts. **"Had to Earn It Then"** (bottom): Two working-class men discuss employment. When asked if he ever earned a living, one boasts he did—specifically "when I wuz livin' on me mother-in-law." The humor exploits the period stereotype of sons-in-law as dependent, parasitic figures mooching off their wives' families. The dialogue's dialect marks these as working-class characters, making the joke target a recognizable social type of the era. Both comics mock human pretension and social dependency through exaggerated character types.