Judge, 1930-01-18 · page 11 of 36
Judge — January 18, 1930 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine Satire Analysis This page satirizes the 1920s-30s American obsession with medical procedures, particularly tooth extraction as a supposed cure-all remedy. **The Main Cartoons:** The top cartoon mocks patients who casually ask doctors to bring alcohol while making house calls—a dig at Prohibition-era hypocrisy. The middle section features monologues from patients boasting about surgeries, with absurd claims (like having an Atwater Kent radio installed during appendix removal), satirizing how people competed to discuss their medical procedures as status symbols. **"The Modern Cure-All" poem** is the page's central satire: it ridicules the era's genuine medical trend of extracting teeth to treat completely unrelated ailments—neuritis, stuttering, fallen arches, even nervousness. Dentists and physicians actually practiced this, believing focal infections caused systemic disease. The bottom cartoon shows two men boxing over a woman, with one saying he'll be ready "in a minute"—a non-sequitur suggesting the absurdity continues throughout. The page mocks both medical fads and patients' eager participation in them.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Come over quickly, doctor; the baby is awfully sick—and—er— you might bring a pint of whisky with you, too.’ “Didja Hear ’bout M’ Operation?” . +. and they took out my appendix and installed an Atwater Kent with a dynamic speaker, . .. so I told him that if my pictures didn’t come out any better than that, I'd go to Steichen next time. - and what bedside manners! . «and my husband has been kick- ing about the gas bill ever since. . . + I thought she'd never stop talk- ing . . . four operations and two hus- bands within a year! . and when he put the fluoroscope on me, I tried not to think about any- thing because they can see right through you with those things, you know. ... tonsils? ... you haven't seen anything yet! . . . so I let my private nurse go and got my interne back again. . .. she couldn't have an operation because the poor dear simply didn’t have a thing to wear. . . . so I tried an osteopath, but he al- ways rubbed me the wrong way. ... Well, that’s my story, and I've got scars to prove it. —Epb Granam And now comes the dumb taxi- driver who is carrying change. His physician told him that that was what he needed. & \ ra “Good Lord, that surprises gestion.” Mary—you know ays give me indi- Shop Yes, and lots of surgeons talk about their operations too, In the old days barbers practised medicine and surgery; now, however, most of them confine themselves to surgery. False teeth, too, should be seen and not heard. The Modern Cure-All If your eyes have slipped position, Don’t consult a slick optician— Have your teeth pulled. If your adenoids annoy you, Should your epiglottis cloy you— Have your teeth pulled. If you can't mix fats and starches, If you're prone to fallen arches, If your Adam's apple parches— Have your teeth pulled. If you're subject to neuritis, Meningitis or Saint Vitus— Have your teeth pulled. If you stammer, snort or stutter, If you slip or skid in butter— Have your teeth pulled. When you get the least bit “nerv: If the world looks topsy-turvy ; If and when you're down with scurvy— Have your teeth pulled. —O pb Doctor Mitcuert gt 5a “Don’t go, Doc—I’ll be with ya in a minute.” comicbooks.com