Judge — October 20, 1923 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Dumb Animals" by John Held Jr. This satirical piece uses mock-Latin animal names to mock contemporary human behavior. "Drug storeus cowboyus" depicts a man in a drugstore acting like a cowboy with guns—mocking drugstore cowboys, a slang term for loitering young men who posed tough but were harmless. "Equus asinus" (literally "horse-ass") shows a donkey-headed man, a straightforward insult. "Marathonus dancerus" depicts people dancing wildly, mocking the marathon dancing craze popular in the 1920s. "Cloakus modelus" shows fashionably dressed women displaying cloaks, likely satirizing fashion models and the garment industry's absurdities. The satire targets contemporary social trends Held found ridiculous: affected youth behavior, fashion obsession, and fad dancing. The faux-scientific naming scheme mocks pseudo-intellectual humor popular in Judge magazine.