Judge, 1930-06-07 · page 12 of 36
Judge — June 7, 1930 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This Judge magazine page contains two separate humorous pieces: **"Why Elephants Wish They Could Forget"** satirizes the common saying that "an elephant never forgets." The joke presents various people making embarrassing references to the elephant (Sophie Newhart, a Montreal party, eating peanuts) while the elephant stares at them—playing on the anxiety that it remembers these awkward moments. The reference to "Paul Whiteman's understudy" alludes to the famous bandleader Paul Whiteman, popular in the 1920s-30s. **"Helping Hands"** depicts a man receiving unwanted advice about his new straw hat. Friends nitpick it relentlessly: it's too large, will get filthy, unsuitable timing, and will blow away. The satire mocks how people eagerly offer harsh "helpful" criticism rather than genuine support. The title is ironic—these hands aren't helpful at all. Both pieces use everyday social situations to poke fun at human behavior: anxiety about being remembered and the tendency to tear down others under the guise of friendship.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Why Elephants Wish They Could Forget “H"™ there, Mr. Elephant, if you ever need a job, come around to me, and I'll get you one as Paul Whiteman’s understudy “Doesn't it remind you of Sophie Newhart back home?” “Ah, there's a fella I betcha would like to check his trunk somewhere!” “They say elephants never forget. Ask it’ the date of the Battle of Waterloo!” “Elephant ain't. my old friend Jumbo!” “Look at the way it’s staring at me. It probably remembers me from that party at Montreal we were on to- gether!” “Why you vught to be ashamed of yourself ‘gobbling up peanuts like that! Tusk, tusk!" —Artuurn Sitversratr JUDGE “The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.” 10 Helping Hands First day out with the new straw hat <0) course [ don’t: know much yout it, but if you ask me I'd say the thing looks about two sizes too large.” “Why didn’t you wait ‘til the real hot weather hit us? Why, that hat will be simply filthy by. the time you need it_ most !” “Me get one? Say, I wouldn't wear one of those iron saucepans if you gave it tome! What you ought to have is one of those featherweight felts. Why, su-re.” “It's the herd idea behind those things that I can’t stand. Why should men buy ‘em or discard ‘em on certain days just bee lot of hat manu- facturers say Only morons do that.” “Oh, TM grant you that some men look well in ‘em. ‘Trouble is too many cocoanut-headed birds like Champ Clements try to wear ‘em, You've got to fb a fairly poin at bean, get my “Sure, it’s fresh enough now, but wait ‘til the old wind scales up under that brim! You'll be lucky if, some one doesn’t give it a drop-kick the third day out!” —Stantey Jones comicbooks.com