Judge, 1929-03-09 · page 17 of 36
Judge — March 9, 1929 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks the superficiality of a college lecture on oral English. The cartoon depicts a professor at "Garibaldi Barber College" delivering a rambling lecture filled with disconnected small talk—gossip about Hoover (likely Herbert Hoover, president 1929-1933), mentions of Captain Fried, Commander Byrd's South Pole expedition, stock market troubles, and personal complaints about his sciatic nerve. The satire's point: the "curriculum" consists of meaningless chitchat rather than actual instruction. Students are shown smoking cigarettes before class, suggesting low academic standards. By setting this at a "Barber College" rather than a prestigious university, the author emphasizes the pretentiousness of calling such rambling discourse an "Oral English Lecture." The joke targets both educators who waste students' time with off-topic monologues and institutions that dress up trivial instruction in respectable-sounding titles. The rigid bell schedule frames legitimate learning being replaced by idle conversation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Curriculum A bell rang loudly. — Sixty- three students threw y their cigarettes and thronged into the Lecture Hall. Soon the rows of seats were filled with attentive undergraduates. Then the pro- ered, mounted the plat- form, cleared his throat and pro- ceeded with the lecture: fessor jood morning, gentlemen! > day, isn’t it? But I think ng to get some r Feel it in my Every time t hee gets damp my old. sci- atica troubles n If I was rich I'd be in Florida now. Great feller, that Captain Fried. Did you read where somebody said that the well-dressed man should twenty suits and twenty Pretty bad break in the stock market. Do you think JUDGE Plant) mushrooms in your window box and raise your own music. Hoover will make a good Presi- dent? Yes, he’s an experienced man, at feller Whalen is cer- tainly sing the dickens with the police force in New York. Well, the groundhog saw his shadow out in Ohio and a neigh bor of mine noticed a robin on his lawn the other day, Spring’s coming at last. My oldest boy is laid up with the What do you think of Commander Byrd's’ trip to. the South Pole? Glad to have seen you. Good-bye.” Then the bell rang again. The students left their se: nd thronged into the halls. he in- structor gathered up his notes and withdrew, The morning Oral English Lecture in the Garibaldi Barber College was over. —Artuce LL. Lireaaxs Guess mumps. comicbooks.com