Judge — March 17, 1928 — page 14: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This single-panel cartoon depicts a domestic scene where a man sits at a dinner table with several other guests, apparently caught in a lie. The caption—"And I told the wife I was going to sit up with a sick friend!"—reveals the joke: he's actually dining out socially rather than attending to a supposedly ill companion. The satire targets male deception and infidelity of the era. The well-dressed gentleman's excuse about caring for a sick friend is exposed as pretext for enjoying entertainment and dining with others. This reflects Judge magazine's frequent mockery of bourgeois hypocrisy, particularly men's duplicity toward their wives. The illustration style and clothing suggest early 20th-century America, when such satirical commentary on marital discord was popular magazine humor.