Judge, 1926-06-05 · page 17 of 36
Judge — June 5, 1926 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is page 13 from Judge magazine's humorous historical series "The Outline of Humor." The content is satirical pseudo-history, mocking both scholarly pretension and human nature. **The Main Cartoon:** Shows a man being backed into by a mule while another man urges him forward with dialect speech ("Fo' de love of Mike"). This illustrates comic physical misfortune—a common vaudeville/slapstick trope of the era. **The Text Satire:** The article humorously traces humor's origins, claiming religion sparked the first "fun" when a Neolithic man's complaint about being anemic was dismissed. It then cites a fabricated archaeological "record" about ancient Assyrian kings Tiglath Piliser I and II, where the punchline is that civilization existed because a wife already owned a book—reducing "civilization" to mere book ownership. **The Joke:** Judge mocks both academic pomposity (fake scholarly citations) and the triviality of human achievement. The article's deadpan delivery of absurd claims creates the humor—nothing here is meant seriously.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE THE OUTLINE OF HUMOR BEING A_ PLAIN HISTORY OF WIT AND HUMOR (Whats gone before.) Nothing much! IV ASSING — quickly through the Neo- lithic and Paleolithic Age we find that some- where in here religion started and then, you might say, the fun began. L. J. Dusenberry, LL.D., in his “Palzo- lithic Platitudes” states that religion was first discovered when Neo- lithic man told some one he was anemic and the reply was “I don’t care what your religion Tiglath Piliser I and II (Note boyish bobs and poker faces) is!” This caused a re- ligious war which has lasted ever since. V Civilization, we are told, had its beginning in Egypt and historians agree that it is evident from relics unearthed in the Eridu district that there was some reading. They base their beliefs on the fol- lowing record: (See Weed’s “Excavations in Mesopotamia.) It seems Tiglath Piliser I asked Tiglath Piliser I] what he should give his wife Isis for her birth- day. Tiglath Piliser IT suggested a book and Tiglath Piliser I said: “No, she’s got a book.” This proves conclusive- ly that there was civili- zation of a sort. We will dwell but very little on the Egyp- tian Dynasties and their ilk; in fact we will ig- nore them entirely which brings us to the fall of Rome and why (Cont'd next week!) “Fo’ de love of Mike, go ahead! You’se backin’ dat mule comicbooks.com