Judge, 1907-05-25 · page 16 of 16
Judge — May 25, 1907 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This six-panel comic strip satirizes an American ("Nervy Nat") dining at a French restaurant with a temperamental French chef. The humor relies on ethnic stereotypes: the chef speaks in exaggerated French-accented English ("Ze cHer," "Praxitéle"), while Nat affects mock-French gibberish when trying to complain or appease him. The satire mocks both characters: Nat for his brash American rudeness and presumption in criticizing the chef's cooking, and the chef for his pompous arrogance and thin-skinned reaction to criticism. The physical comedy escalates from verbal complaint to Nat chasing and kicking the chef, then reversing into obsequious flattery. The strip plays on early 20th-century tensions between American and European (particularly French) cultural attitudes—Americans seen as uncouth, Europeans as pretentious. The joke's appeal depends on caricatures that modern readers would recognize as offensive ethnic stereotyping.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1, Nervy Nat—"' Praxitéle, go out to the food-destroyer, by courtesy known ¥ sieu', ze chef say you are—I cannot him say in Engleesh as the chef, and say to him that I ordered * squeezed duck,’ not a sponge-rack. hat! do you dare return with such a message? After Teil him that 1, Nervy Nat. believe there are worse cooks in the world, but 1 go out and find that low-browed steak-pounder and kick his air-crates in, |’ that in all my wanderings I have failed to notice any. Go!" come back for you, you pall-bearer to poultry!" 3. Nervy Nar—"*Couldn’t say him in Engleesh, eh? I'll give this little 4. Ze cHer—" Aha-a-a! So zis is ze pig of an Americain which insult my gravy-wallower a few lessons in simplified American. Such colossal impu- cooking—yes?”* dence! Send me ina dinner an ordinary hobo would pass up and then hand Nervy Nat—"Nun-not at all! Nun-nothing of the kuk-kind! I—I think me an insult for dessert, will he?” your cooking is bully. Rur-really, there's bub-been a mistake. | was mum- merely dud-dropping in here to tell you how deelightful your cooking "— 5. Ze cHer—"'I want m’sieu' to try my consommé fullenne—yes?” q paiee yes?" Nexvy Nat—"Hell-ipl It clettalaly il filt flor the gledse-bul I'm nol ot cates | ri ctadly conven ith you on any subjec hulgry. Lemme oul! It's really the molst elxquisil sloup—molst delilshul from the advisability of making Russia one of the United States to how ' sloup! I oly holpe ils as gool fol th’ hair. Hel" — suppress the Teddy Bear; but when it comes to soup—eni, mene, mona, mi CoPrrenAeT 186" RY AUOGE COMPANY PUBLIDNERS E98 FOURTH AYE. NEW YORK I'm out!” NERVY NAT GETS AWF'LY PARTICULAR. The First Series of Nery Nat's Adventures is now ready in book-form. Price, 7s cents; 10 cents additional for postage when ordered by mail, Address Juve Company, 225 Fourth Avenue, New York. comicbooks.com