Judge, 1927-12-17 · page 35 of 36
Judge — December 17, 1927 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical advertisement disguised as a humorous anecdote, drawn by Dr. Seuss. The joke mocks American linguistic pretension and class anxiety in the early 20th century. **The Setup:** An upper-class Park Avenue resident dines at "Mulcahey's," a working-class Hell's Kitchen restaurant where waiters speak only in colloquial "American" (working-class New York dialect). His sophisticated companions are nervous, assuming he won't understand. **The Satire:** The narrator astounds them by fluently speaking the waiter's dialect—revealing he's taken a correspondence course in "American" offered by Judge Publishing. The humor lies in treating vernacular speech as a foreign language requiring formal study, mocking both: - Upper-class snobbery about "proper" English - The absurdity of marketing courses that teach what immigrants and working people already speak **The Punchline:** The advertisement then recruits readers to buy the same course, suggesting even they might need lessons in understanding "American." It's gentle satire on class divisions and linguistic pretension in Depression-era America.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
They Grinned When the Waiter Spoke to Me in American — but their smiles changed to amazement at my reply! 1 dropped in at Mulcahey’s for dinner they’s is one of those quaint little places Hell's Kitchen, where the waiters don speak English and can only talk to you in Americ We live on Park Avenue, where, of co English is ever spoken, and had gone tc a ark,” as the boys say When the waiter s. trifle nervous, wor intered up, everybody grew a ing just who was going to give the order. t is, everybody was nervous but me, for I had a “card up my Sleeve,” if I may use the ex- pression. They grinned when the waiter spoke to me in American “ "tv have?” he asked in that quaintest of a All eves were glued on me. There was 2 use and my brother-in-law even snick- ered. /imagi I answered the waiter in | sur prise AMERI hamen ana russ biff san here were s of amazement, and ess them further [I talked on with the waiter in hi gue for some forty-five minutes “Thomas ! gasped when the waiter had gone “We didn't know you spoke American. Who, pray tell us, V your 3 “Professor And only two weeks that difficult languag wich!" [sa in order to i “T never had a professor » T couldn't speak a word of WATCH YouR HAT 4CoAT American cust merican life they were You, too, can enjoy Sign up for ot never be st JUDGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc 627 West 43d St. New v eriul course in L had easily and Pe eae itera, Z York comicbooks.com