Judge — March 10, 1928 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Explanation for Modern Readers This is a single-panel cartoon from Judge magazine satirizing early automobile culture and romantic mishaps. The scene shows a taxi that has crashed into rubble near urban buildings, with the driver gesturing in complaint. The joke plays on the phrase "fine howdy-do" (meaning a mess or predicament). A passenger—apparently on a romantic date—complains that the crash interrupted a kiss with his companion. The satire targets the hazards of newfangled taxi cabs in cities, suggesting they're so unreliable they interfere with passengers' personal lives. It's also mocking the passenger's priorities: he's more concerned about his interrupted romance than the actual accident itself, reflecting period attitudes toward both automobiles and dating customs.