Judge, 1931-07-18 · page 11 of 36
Judge — July 18, 1931 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Political Satire Analysis This 1932 *Judge* page satirizes the idea of electing professional entertainers as president. The text mocks recurring proposals to run **Will Rogers** for president, alongside **Harpo Marx** and other comedians, arguing comedians shouldn't hold high office. The article uses ironic logic: it claims the U.S. has had "fine amateur talent" as president for years—clearly mocking **Calvin Coolidge** and **Herbert Hoover** as inadvertent comedians whose actual presidencies were farcical. **Al Smith** (likely the 1928 Democratic candidate) is dismissed as merely presentable. The cartoons illustrate this theme through slapstick: the top shows cars colliding with comedic dialogue; the bottom depicts massive traffic chaos and wreckage during "Clean-up Week," suggesting government incompetence creates disaster. The satirical point: current professional politicians are already running the country like comedians—so why hire actual entertainers? It's biting social commentary on 1930s economic failure and political dysfunction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
y pica a anise Amateurs vs. Pros TPuene has been some talk again of running Will Rogers for President in 1932. We think a lot of Will, and Harpo Marx and some of the other aspirants, but we don’t think it’s fair to put a professional humorist in the White House. For the past twelve or thirteen years we've had some of the finest amateur talent and, in our opin- ion, there is plenty of Presidential timber that is simon-pure. Of course, Calvin is out. He had the Harpo x style down perfectly, and was infinitely better at pantomime, but these memoirs and columns of his have put him in. the professional ranks. Hoover was good during his campaign, but save for a few short skits on prosperity he hasn't’ done anything really worth chuckling over since. Al Smith would do in his bath- ing suit, but one can’t wear bathing suits at important functions, Yes, we need new humor, but let's keep the pros out of the White House. “Techk, tchk, tchk! A fine lotta good Clean-up Week did you, lady!” 9 JUDGE “You bump me again, you big sap, and I'll back into you comicbooks.com