Judge — April 21, 1928 — page 20: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes male vanity and romantic pretense through contrasting scenarios. The top panel mocks men's sentimental posturing—a couple in a car exchanging flowery moonlight compliments about shining eyes and pearls, language typically associated with romantic poetry. The lower panels deflate this artifice. Men boast about taking out "pretty nasty" girls, listing superficial attributes ("tiller girls," references to physical appearance). The final punchline—a conversation about buying a derby hat where size "doesn't make no difference, it's for a trombone"—appears to be a crude double entendre mocking masculine boasting about conquests. The satire targets early 20th-century male attitudes: the gap between flowery romantic language men use versus their actual shallow motivations, and the self-aggrandizing way men discuss their dating experiences. The humor relies on exposing this hypocrisy through juxtaposition and crude insinuation typical of Judge's satirical approach.