Judge, 1926-04-03 · page 10 of 36
Judge — April 3, 1926 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Bigger and Better" by Parke Cummings This cartoon satirizes the American habit of **competitive one-upmanship**—the compulsion to top everyone else's story. The narrator attempts casual conversation about cold weather, heating costs, and golf scores, but his companion reflexively counters each remark with an exaggerated claim ("forty below," "twenty-five for coke," better golf scores). The joke escalates absurdly: the frustrated narrator shoots his companion, then casually dismisses it using the same one-upping logic—by claiming German WWI guns could shoot seventy miles. The humor lies in the social critique: some people's need to appear superior and impressive is so pathological that even murder becomes just another story to be trumped. The accompanying "Help Wanted" letter parodies poorly educated rural job applicants, written in broken English, detailing his successive failed marriages and legal troubles—a gentle mockery of farming desperation during economically hard times.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
That first string bean, Bigger and Better 1GuTy cold to-day,” I remarked. “Bosh. This is nothing. Why, out in Minnesota it often goes to forty below,” he replied. . Tcontinued, “I’m glad [have this } ; “Heavy? Tha one I’m getting at Spindels has it all over that.” I decided to change the subject. “I paid eighteen dollars for a ton of coal to-day. Terrible, isn’t it? “Huh! That's nothing. I know a man who paid twenty-five for coke.” I was becoming desperate. you know I got a seventy. in Florida last week.” “Why, that’s nothing. Jones gets sixty-eights all the time.” That was enough. I drew a re- volver from my pocket and leveled it at his head. “What's that?” he asked in terror. “Oh, that’s nothing,” I remarked, as I emptied its contents into his brain. “Why, during the war the Germans had guns that would shoot seventy miles.” “Did ight down Parke Cummings \ FUNNYBOWES > FLORIDA'S MOTTO ( Yes, we have some bonanzas. \ ich one printed \— Help Wanted DEER Sir: I ANSER to your ad in tonite’s paper for a experiencea married farm to poultry with knolledge of tracters, I cood fill the bill. first wife was a holy terrer. man on milk cows and ayed 250, [was not exper- ience then, and she took my pay envelope every week and give me nothing. M bigger nor a sparro, but she bossed second wife was no me worsen the first. me a knickel. jum size, but I find size makes no difference. as 1 and 2, if not wurse. With my forth wife I was more experience and quit work, whitch I saw no use in as I did not get any of the wages. The court sent me to jale for not support, 3 months with reward for good conduct. When I come out she was gone, whitch I suppose was the reward. The wife I have now is the wurst, and I wood like to get away on a farm, where I heer all is pieceful, except. mules, whitch I wood regard us amatures at: making a disturbince. I cood fill the bill according to your ad, for there is not a more experiencea Hoping to heer from you by air male, Pete Dudad I have never bean on a farm She never give The next was mee. She was just the same married man in the state. What we need most to-day isn’t protection from Dutch Tulip Para- But a spray that takes care of the fence pest. sites. comicbooks.com