Judge, 1926-05-15 · page 8 of 36
Judge — May 15, 1926 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Outline of Humor" - Judge Magazine This is the introduction to a satirical history of wit and humor, presented as parody of H.G. Wells' educational works. The main cartoon depicts a woman standing on a high chair while a man examines it, with the caption "'That's Pa's own easy-chair, he's a tennis umpire!'"—the joke being that the chair's high elevation makes it resemble an umpire's elevated position. The text credits famous figures of the 1920s-30s (King George, Mussolini, Jack Dempsey, Harold Grange, Chaplin, Marx Brothers) in mock-serious fashion, satirizing how such "authorities" might be consulted for a humor history. The opening chapter humorously traces humor's origins to prehistoric jellyfish, mocking grandiose historical narratives. This is lighthearted satire on pretentious scholarship rather than political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
— Being a Plain History of Wit and Humor (With Apologies to H. G. Wells) by Judge, Jr. Written originally with the advice and editorial help of — King George Mussolini Jack Dempsey (Red) Harold Grange \and illustrated by Perelman) Introduction This Outline of Humor, of which this is the nineteenth edition, freshly revised and rearranged, is an attempt to tell simply, so that even a tabloid newspaper reader may understand it, the story of humor and its effect on life, if any. The writer spent several years in research and investigation and wishes to thank the following people for their great help in furnishing data: Calvin Coolidge, Alfred E. Smith, THE OUTLINE OF HUMOR Two jelly-like Blobs (probably Ame- ba) slithering. William Randolph Hearst, William Allen White, the four Marx Brothers, Charles Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Winston Churchill, DeWolf Hopper, Peggy Hopkins Joyce and Frank Tinney. The writer owes a word of thanks to Oscar P. Smeltz, head librarian of the Hoboken Public Library. He would also like to acknowledge here the help he received from his secre- tary, Miss Smilch. Without her labor in typing and re-typing the “That's Pa’s own easy-chair, he’s a tennis umpire!” drafts of the various chapters, in checking references, finding suitable quotations, keeping in order the whole mass of material for this his- tory and without her constant help and excellent drink mixing, its com- pletion would have been impossible. Judge, Jr. The Outline of Humor Cuapter I ACK in the early Paleozoic Period, before Forty-secondstreet was even considered uptown, when life was slowly forming in the shallow waters and intertidal muds off Coney Island, humor was born. And it came about in this way. One rainy afternoon a small jellyfish blob of living matter worked its way through the slimy waters and as it slithered it hummed cheerily to itself “Amoeba for years and ameeba for- ever.” This is how it came to be (Continued next week—don’t miss it!) comicbooks.com