Judge — March 10, 1917 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes a disagreement between two people in Cairo about whether a joke about heliotrope (a purple flower) has successfully landed with an English tourist. The humor operates on multiple levels: the couple argues over whether the tourist has truly understood the joke or merely pretended to know it—suggesting the tourist's claimed familiarity is false politeness rather than genuine comprehension. The joke itself appears to play on the color "heliotrope," likely a visual or linguistic pun that the English tourist either doesn't grasp or pretends to understand. The setting in Cairo and the reference to an "English tourist" reflect Judge's contemporary audience's familiarity with travel narratives and the stereotype of reserved, polite British travelers abroad who might feign understanding rather than admit confusion. The cartoon mocks both the failed joke and the social awkwardness of cross-cultural interaction.