Judge, 1924-07-19 · page 35 of 36
Judge — July 19, 1924 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a self-promotional advertisement for *Judge* magazine disguised as a joke. Two horses named Whitey and Dobbin discuss Pegasus, the mythical winged horse from Greek mythology symbolizing divine inspiration and poetry. The punchline: Pegasus proved his "horse sense" by subscribing to *Judge*—a circular compliment suggesting the magazine itself is divinely inspired. The text below acknowledges this is the "World's Worst Joke" but uses it as a hook to pitch subscriptions. The phrase "horse of another color" (meaning something different) and "horse-chestnut brand" (a reference to the tired joke "Why did the horse cross the road?") are puns reinforcing the horse theme while admitting the humor is corny. Essentially, *Judge* is self-consciously making a bad joke to advertise itself—betting that readers will subscribe to prove the rest of the magazine is actually funny.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Whitey—Say, old horse, who was this Pegasus they talk about? Dobbin—The nag of divine inspiration. He proved it by being the first member of our race with enough horse sense to subscribe to Judge. Now that e I the ant your F the READER didn’t manage to get a horselaugh out of the World’s Worst Joke, perpetrated above, he should not take it too much to heart, for the rest of the magazine is a horse of another color. A subscription or a newsstand investment should convince him:that the humor isn’t of the horse-chestnut brand. comicbooks.com