Judge, 1927-12-31 · page 20 of 37
Judge — December 31, 1927 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the excessive, breathless commentary style of 1920s-30s radio boxing broadcasts. The left column presents an absurdly overwrought play-by-play of a fight between "Kid Krackem" and "Battling Blooie"—fictional boxers used to mock the genre's theatrical hyperbole and repetitive clichés ("ete., ete."). The cartoon illustrates the joke: a father abandons his family to read a magazine article because a boxing broadcast scheduled for 38 seconds actually consumed 15 minutes of airtime. The satire targets both radio announcers' tendency to pad broadcasts with dramatic filler and listeners' gullible fascination with the format. The brief "Apple Sauce" section offers unrelated social commentary about sudden fame and people claiming prior acquaintance with the newly famous—filler typical of Judge's miscellaneous humor pages.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
co JUDGE Why We’ve Given Up Listen- ing to Fights on the Radio “Well, here we Kid Krackem and Battling Blooie shake and the fight is on. Wow! Blooie lands a weak jab and then Krackem comes back with one, two, three hard rights to the and they hurt. Oh! The Kid is chasing Blooie all over the ring, swinging rights and lefts as he follows him. Blooie is He’s in a bad holding on now. way, ete., ete, . Now they're out for the second round. Oh, my! Krackem is out in front by a mile. He's battering the Battler with body blows and Blooie almost goes He looks bad—very bad. There’s a big cut over his left eye. But he shows his gameness when he smiles after Krackem lands two ter-r-ifie lefts to the jaw, and comes back with a right O-h-h! The Kid has him up against the ropes now down. that misses. “There’s no other way, children. and it looks as though he can’t last much longer, ete., ete. . of the seventh round. Both of Blooie’s eyes are almost closed and the blood is running down his face in rivers. Krackem steps in and lands a right, then a left, then a right, then another right! Oh! That last was a tremendous Blooie tries to retaliate, but his punches are wild. He goes into a clinch, but Krackem pushes him away and mutters: “Come on and _ fight.” Blooie tries to say something, but the Kid lands a wicked left to his mouth, Boy, V'll bet that sock rattled his teeth, ete., ete. “\.. Well, here we are for the last round. They shake hands, and then Krackem springs at the Battler like a tiger. One, two, thre four, rights to the jaw! Blooie’s knees are sagging now, and it doesn’t look as if he could last the round. He tries to block, but the Kid knocks his guard down. Wow! A ter-r-r-ific blow! ‘Liberty’ article that was scheduled for 38 seconds!” swing from the Kid's shoelaces swings his head back. Another! ANOTHER! (Ding! Ding!) There's the gong, and it saved Blooie from a knockout. He was practically out on his feet. ‘The judges are collecting the slips und we'll give you the decision in a minute. Here it is. (Ter- rific din.) Blooie! Blooie wins on points. The unanimous. ‘This fight was broad- cast through the courtesy of the decision was New Silver Cigarette Company. We are now signing off. Good night.” —Parke CumMincs Apple Sauce Many a known by somebody who isn’t becomes a known by everybody, and everybody tells him they knew him when he was nobody ‘and they knew he would be somebody some nobody anybody and — is Your father took fifteen minutes to read a 18 comicbooks.com