Judge, 1929-04-27 · page 13 of 36
Judge — April 27, 1929 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Improbable Passenger" - Judge Magazine Satire This page contains two distinct pieces of humor: **"The Improbable Passenger"** (main story): A father tells children a bedtime "fairy story" about a traveling salesman—a stock character in American humor. The joke is that this salesman is *completely* atypical: he sits quietly, doesn't talk, doesn't smoke cigars, doesn't brag about sales or lodge memberships, and generally violates every stereotype of the loud, obnoxious traveling salesman archetype common to the era. The humor relies on readers' familiarity with this clichéd character type, making his utter ordinariness absurdly fantastic by comparison. **"A Bald-Headed Man Attends a Hair-Raising Seance"** (bottom cartoon): Shows a séance scene with the obvious pun: a bald man attending a "hair-raising" (frightening) séance. The humor is visual wordplay—exploiting the double meaning of "hair-raising." Both pieces target middle-class American social types and conventions recognizable to Judge's contemporary readers.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TDGE The Improbable Passenger instead of coffee and cigars in the den lets have a fairy story on tonights menu kiddies ive got one here thatll burn yeu up i found it in dadas memory trank up in the attic and now kneel up in your chair and breathe on the window isk where we arc like you was on the cho cho car and ill b well once upon a time a traveling salesman. sat in 1 pullman chair en route to buf falo and there he sat and he never moved and he looked out of the window and didnt open his yap all the way from new york to buffalo and he didnt order a table from the orter and ven his brief case dostart figuring out his expense account or how many Iyets or nodgets hed sold dur- the month of april and he didnt lumber into the mens simok ing room and ody for a mateh buddy he didnt join in iny of the conversation and. say by the way was any of you lads ever in fonda and he didnt say yes hoovers all right but give me a man who t blah blah and he didnt take up the w of the stuoking compartment with his shaving outfit or wear suspenders ind bumble bee shoes and have a xreen spot from a brass stud on his adams apple and in the dining car he ordered his food and kept his yap shut until it was bro . . 1 without saying hey ¢ 2 Tur Gasrirren—You was quite right, mum—that was a ive been traveling on this road escape 0° gas! for the past blah blah and he didnt yank out a pencil between id make a sales chart on t cloth or tap the sugar bowl with the eraser and he didn't have three cigars and nine pencil clips lined up in his vest pocket and no bronze emblem in his but tonhole or lodge insignia on his watch chain or a leather fob for being the head man in the western territory and he didn't: talk to strangers and say were doing thout 55 now and we should make this up before we reach albany or could i trouble you for the salt old man and now children uncle jack wants you to good nights rest and dont lila that you must sleep tight and look nice and fresh on the mor row because youre A bald-headed man attends a hair-raising seance. of the may.” —Jaex Cheer comicbooks.com