Judge — August 21, 1926 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is a humorous cartoon from *Judge* magazine depicting a beach or waterfront scene. Two working-class men in the foreground watch a person executing an elaborate diving maneuver from a rope into the water, while boats and a coastal village appear in the background. The joke hinges on the word "dive"—the speakers mistake an acrobatic dive for a "dive" in the slang sense: a disreputable bar or establishment. Their rural or unsophisticated dialect ("th' purtiest") and their misinterpretation creates the humor. The cartoon satirizes class differences and the gap between working-class vernacular and refined behavior, a common *Judge* theme of the era.