Judge, 1915-05-22 · page 7 of 24
Judge — May 22, 1915 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes pretentious intellectuals who claim to appreciate humor but demonstrably lack it. The central anecdote describes a professorial man (identifiable by his Vandyke beard) who tells the narrator he is "much int'rested in humoh"—the misspelling itself mocking his affected speech. The narrator recognizes this as a red flag: people who are genuinely funny don't obsess over humor academically; they simply possess it naturally. The joke culminates when the professor's "amusing" story—about a friend greeting him over the telephone—falls completely flat, revealing his complete humorlessness. The top cartoon illustrates the contrast between lively, spontaneous social enjoyment (left) and stiff, joyless gatherings (right), reinforcing the theme that authentic humor cannot be studied or performed. The bottom anecdotes provide lighter supporting jokes about social observation and children's Sunday school behavior, maintaining the magazine's satirical tone about American social pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
—— SS Se SOME PEOPLE PREFER THE OLD STEPS And He Wasn't English, Either well.’ Just as if he saw me, you know. I as they marched into the assembly room. NE MORNING, after I had spoken to thought that was very amusing, indeed."* “What was the song?"" asked fond parent the students in the Lewis and Clarke Knowing I should have to go back close _ of orthodox persuasion. . . high school, Spokane, I was accosted in the © the paleozoic age in humor to reach him, “Onward, Christian Science! corridor by a professo- | said, ‘Yes, the rial-looking person who first time I heard wore a Vandyke and had that, I kicked a other faults. He thus pore out of my accosted me: cradle."* . “Do you know, I was Oh, indeed !’* HIN NI SS Sa pares i he exclaimed. i\ ee: eat 3 much ine rested in what “Now you do in. yaarg —§®) you said this mohning = % G\HH} 0 the stewdents, 1 Fresh met te it < ‘i’ am much int’rested in possible you were humoh.”” int’rested in hu- Now, when a man tells me he is‘‘much oh so young as int'rested in humoh,"’ I know I have fallen that?" ; yt! foul of one with no sense of humor, and] __ Sobbing bitter- \ ? : vip trutt yearn for escape. That sort consider (and ly, I fled blindly. ‘ Hin \\ they're right) humor as something totally ~S{jickland Git : J Mt iff] | outside and apart from themselves—some- thing to be chloroformed, impaled with a | What It Was | pin and studied under a microscope of high Six - year-old power. returned from I was speechless in the presence of this his first day at Person, and he went on: Sunday school, “Do you know, the other day a friend very proud that Y of mine said something that amused me he had learned HOW THEY DO IT greatly. He spoke over the telephone tome the song that Steve—They say that waiters can always size a man up and said, ‘Good-morning. You're looking the children sang Lillian—I suppose they measure him from tip to tip. comicbooks.com