Judge, 1906-10-06 · page 16 of 16
Judge — October 6, 1906 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This six-panel satirical comic features "Nervy Nat," a recurring character type in Judge magazine—a brash American tourist abroad. The humor derives from his deliberately rude, entitled behavior toward French people and fellow travelers on a Seine river boat. Nat systematically antagonizes everyone: he dismisses a French ticket-taker, complains about sharing deck space with "bourgeois persons," plays optical illusion pranks on other passengers, steals their food, and later confronts a French sergeant demanding an "explanation" for his treatment. The satire targets American tourists' arrogance, snobbery (he claims aristocratic superiority while robbing people), and aggressive entitlement abroad. The French characters—depicted through accents and names like "Sergeant Caduc"—are portrayed as bewildered by his audacity. The joke positions American rudeness and self-importance as both contemptible and comically unstoppable, mocking a recognizable stereotype of the "Ugly American."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1. Ticket person—"* Billets, s'il vous plait—teeke! Nervy Nat—"*Oh, go over in the shade and throw a convulsion. I'm going for a spinon the river and I've promised myself not to think of asant all day. So kindly melt away and blend with the itl 3. Nervy Nat—" will you lo * Keskersaykersar?” Nervy Nat—" Perhaps you wouldn't be interested, but there is a most extraordinary optical iliusion. Do you all see it the way it strikes me? Well, to ME, the shore seems to be moving away from US!" PHAN i ee YUH St 5. Nervy Nat—" Sacred felines! This is no lunch for me. I've got my opinion of you middle-class trippers if you can't put up a better repast than this. Now, how much nutriment do you imagine there is in a pussy-cat? Besides, | could never bring myself to eat a raw one!" Ceovecsrt 8 8 2108 COUPANY PUBLINE, E8 FOUETH AV, EW YOR 2. Nervy Nat—" Oh, mercy! I suppose it's because | am by nature an aristocrat, but really it is a strain to have to sit on the same deck with these excessively boorjhwa persons. | guess I'll have to take their lunch eon away from them. Ill bet that satchel is stuffed with good though common edibles." Mint! 4. Nervy Nat—*Now that I've got these simple folk wondering whether Paris and environs are waltzing to the rear or not, I'll see if their paté sandwiches and Lyons sausages are really good, know "— 6. Sercent Cavuc—" Sacré steam clams! It is that it is Nervous Na —yes?" Nervy Nar—"* The same. | had, you see, a bit of unpleasantness on one of your river-boats, and as your chief shamefully neglected to have me met on the wharf | have come personally, Caduc, personally, to de- mand an explanation! Bo comicbooks.com