Judge, 1918-02-09 · page 10 of 36
Judge — February 9, 1918 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three humorous essays on defining abstract concepts, particularly humor itself. **"It Doesn't Exist"** by Eugene Wood satirizes philosophical over-intellectualization. Wood argues that defining "humor" is as impossible as defining "house"—the term covers too many variations. He mocks psychiatrists ("alienists") who reject simple, practical answers in favor of absurd precision, committing people to asylums for common sense. The piece suggests that humor simply *is what makes people laugh*—when dignity falls or pretense meets reality. **"With the Corners Off"** by Orson Lowell offers a brief philosophical take: humor smooths life's sharp edges and prevents us from jabbing neighbors with our angular concerns. A postscript humorously complains about the labor of producing illustrations. **"A Burning Institute"** by Howard Brubaker makes a topical joke: during wartime coal shortages (likely WWI era), people use "humor" as a substitute fuel for warmth—treating it as a literal commodity rather than an abstract concept. The lower cartoon shows soldiers discussing romance, likely contrasting youthful idealism with wartime reality.
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type (eight words) or typewriting (twelve), then you can wash up and gohome; you’ve done a full day’s work. What really exists is ever so much harder to talk about than what does not. You are more hampered by the facts. Humor does not exist: you only think so. If the alienist asks you: “What is a table?” and, after much thought, you cautiously begin: “A table is a plane surface . ..”’ he doesn’t let you finish. You are all right in the dome; you can get by. But if you an- swer promptly: ‘A table is what you eat off,” he fills out your commitment to the Home for the Feeble-minded. Similarly, to the question: What is humor? I reply: Humor is what you laugh at. Real people, though, laugh when long-resented, pom- pous Dignity slips on the ice; they laugh when the Big Blaa-Blaa comes suddenly against the Real Thing, bang! “Tt isn’t the coat that makes the man: it’s the pants.” Humor is the shrapnel of Truth exploding in the trenches of the misinformed. “I thought Indianopplus was bigger’n it is, but it ain’t.” The war will not end right till something happens to make us all laugh like the devil. WITH THE CORNERS OFF By Orson Lowett Urtist and Wit UMOR enables us to live in an agreeable, round world; without humor it would be an angular affair of sharp corners, whirling through space and jab- bing its elbows into the neighbors. P. S.—For Heaven's sake, Mary, don’t ever ask me to do such a thing again. This has cost enough in time, = and ink, and paper, and worry to have produced two large drawings for your beautiful publication. A BURNING INSTITUTE Firutay Drawn by F. J Bond, sir? What denomination?” “Baptist.” = far eer By Howarp BruBaker Humorous Author IT DOESN’T EXIST HIS one is topical rather than cosmi Eucene W Humoris that warm glow of theconsciousness which Hy oe le is being widely used this winter as a substitute for coal. ) establish once for all time a satisfactory (More of this Verbal Rioting in the Next Number) definition of the word “humor” is com- paratively casy—comparatively. Easy as compared with defining, say, the word “house,” also among the h’s. When you establish a definition of “house” that will do for all time—Gee, but that’s a terrible long while! — that will satisfactorily cover all kinds of habitations made of all kinds of material from sod to cement: an ice-house and a fire-house; a green-house and a White House and a Colonel House—How did I come to think of him, do you suppos and a pilot-house and a house on the ches: board; a rough house and a full house; a } drug-house and the testa of a free-swinging i pelagic ascidian; the house of Jacob and the House of Hohenzollern—Wait a sec- ond till I can get both feet on the ground at once—the House of Representatives, the astrological house the sun is in, and all the houses you can think of—but I will not list em, so as to save composition. When you wou by BARKSDALE Rocens definition of the word “house” in a line of Young Soldier — Yes, twenty at once, if they were all like you.