Judge, 1919-01-04 · page 2 of 32
Judge — January 4, 1919 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine Advertisement Analysis This is primarily a **humorous advertisement** for Judge magazine itself, personified as "Judge"—depicted as a figure wielding scissors like a hunting tool to capture humor worldwide. The satire claims Judge has a sophisticated "humor spy system" that hunts down jokes globally (referencing an Australian newspaper, steamships, submarines, motorcycles, and kangaroos as delivery methods). The joke plays on Judge's self-importance: it boasts of rejecting most humor it finds, publishing only select material in its "Digest of the World's Humor." The bottom section is a subscription offer encouraging readers to subscribe for three months at reduced rates. The overall humor is self-deprecating mock-pomposity—Judge presents itself as an elite arbiter of comedy while actually being just another magazine competing for readers' attention and money.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
| All Right, Judge: 225 Fifth Avenue New York City S-/Absa If there is any humor anywhere, Judge will get it! A quiet rumor comes to Judge that there is a bit of humor in, say, an Australian newspaper. Judge does not lose a moment. Balloons are sent up, steamships are chartered, submarines are sent motorcycles are sent an- are kept at a white heat, Australia is reached at last, kangaroos are rented, and finally the famous Judge troupe of humor- hounds are set on the trail, nose to the ground, and it is not long until the bit of humor is cornered, captured, and brought back alive and thrown bodily into Judge's wonderful seven page Digest of the World’s Humor. one way, other, cable Judge’s humor spy system covers the globe like a net. It is impos- sible for humor to evade Judge. Of course Judge knows of a great deal of humor that it does not publish. Every joke is photo- graphed under powerful X-rays for flaws. It is amazing the amount of alleged humor Judge does not publish. And Judge’s Digest of the World’s Humor is only the side show. A dime, ten cents, admits you not only to the side show, but to the Big Tent—Judge proper. Or, what’s better, thirteen com- plete performances, side show and all, for a dollar. JUDGE The Happy Medium 225 Fifth Avenue, New York City comicbooks.com