Judge — August 22, 1925 — page 35: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a reader-participation contest page from *Judge* magazine. The three completed panels (signed by Milt Gross) show a military officer discovering soldiers playing on a rooftop, then chasing them, and finally encountering what appears to be a woman with a pot—the fourth panel is blank for reader submissions. The humor targets military discipline and enlisted men's misbehavior. The officer's exaggerated facial expressions and physical comedy (chasing, running) drive the satire. The joke setup suggests soldiers shirking duties or engaged in illicit activity, caught by their superior. The contest invited non-professional readers to submit funny conclusions, paying $25 for the winner—encouraging audience participation in comic storytelling. This reflects early 20th-century magazine culture, where reader engagement was a publication strategy. Without the final panel, we cannot identify the specific military service or historical context, though the uniform and setup suggest WWI or interwar-era satire of military life.