Judge — August 20, 1927 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Antediluvian High Dive" This cartoon satirizes high-diving as a dangerous entertainment spectacle. A woman performs an acrobatic dive from an elephant's trunk into a gathering of onlookers in a prehistoric landscape, complete with palm trees and rocky terrain. The title "Antediluvian" (pre-flood/ancient times) suggests the satire compares this stunt to primitive or primitive-level entertainment. The joke appears to mock the era's popular circus and vaudeville high-diving acts—dangerous performances that attracted crowds despite obvious risks. By setting it in prehistory with an elephant, *Judge* ridicules the spectacle as absurdly risky entertainment, implying society's appetite for such acts is as primitive as ancient times. The cartoon critiques both the performers' recklessness and audiences' appetite for perilous thrills.