Judge — February 23, 1924 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is a single-panel cartoon satirizing post-surgical vanity. A woman named Ethyl, recently operated on for appendicitis, asks her doctor whether her surgical scar will be visible—presumably because she's concerned about its appearance. The doctor's response—"It ought not to"—is the joke's punchline. The humor appears to turn on the doctor's implied reassurance that the scar won't show *because of where it's located* (typically on the lower abdomen), though the exact anatomical joke is left to readers' inference. The cartoon reflects early 20th-century attitudes about female appearance and vanity, presenting a woman's concern with visible scarring as humorous and somewhat frivolous, while also poking gentle fun at the doctor's knowing, reassuring bedside manner.