Judge, 1931-09-26 · page 13 of 40
Judge — September 26, 1931 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Just the Best Time" - Judge Magazine Satire This is a humorous short story by Quentin Reynolds satirizing 1920s social attitudes and economic conditions. The narrative voice—a gossipy woman—describes encounters with a chorus girl (mocking her as brainless) and a man named Jack who's dressed expensively but unemployed, proud of "starting at the bottom." The satire targets: 1. **Class pretension**: Jack shops at cheap "You-Can-Be-Nifty" stores but dresses flashily 2. **Economic absurdity**: Ray braags about unemployment as a career path and invents ridiculous job histories (spoon-bender, bottle-duster) 3. **Depression-era delusion**: Characters dismiss the serious economic crisis as temporary or minor The accompanying cartoons—a police officer near a plug, and figures around a tree—appear to be unrelated Judge magazine humor. The overall piece mocks how people rationalized joblessness and financial struggle during this period, using exaggeration and the narrator's dismissive tone for satirical effect.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WW it's that madani? You want JUDGE JUST THE BEST TIME By Quentin Reynolds < pairs of flesh- olored dancing stockings? Pul-leeze, madam, our gs will wear well, mind the baby, cook the break- fast and fix the furnace, but they won't dance... Oh, I sce, you are a chorus girl and you want them to use when you are dancing. Now, lady, 1 never heard of a chorus wirl wearing stockings. ... What's that? You can’t pay for them but you'll be glad to endorse them for us. ‘Take that golden head of yours back to the theatre and park it in the fourth row where it belongs, but se sister, before I get sore stoc! n outa here, nd forget I am a perfect lady. . Whoops, Mamie! Now she’s sore. Lookut her bounce away. Those chorus girls simply smother me. They got no more brains than a wrestler has necks. But, anyway now we aren't busy Mamie, 1 must tell you about last night. I and Jack went’ out and Mamie we are engaged and 1 can't hardly stand it. Where's the ring? Well as a fatter of t (I'm so excited I can’t talk straight) he didn’t give me no ring, but bend that shell-like ear down here, Mamie, and I'll tell you the whole story. Jack come around last night all dressed up like Luna Park at night. He looks like he stepped out of an adver- t'sement for one of them “You-Can-Be- Nifty, For-Twenty-two-fifty” clothing stores. I don’t mean one of them pl where you walk up two flights and save two dollars and then, on your way out, fall down the two flights and spend a hundred dollars getting your spine picced together again. “You look pretty good, Bright Eyes,” I tell hin “It’s clean living, right thinking and giving up my lunch hour to study, that makes me look like that, Babe,” he says modestly. He alw calls me “Babe.” Well, anyhow, we go to visit some friends of his by the name of Ray and his wife, which he calls Bunny Rabbit. -? Bunny Rabbit is the She would weigh about cutest thing. 97,305 B.C “What are you leading from, partner—fright?” 11 “Thish program comes to you thru th’ courtesy of the Gleeco Ginger Ale Company.” three pounds less than a fire truck which has stopped dietin, Ray is not working and he says there is a great future in un- cimployment. “Tam beginning at the bottom and i working up,” he explains. “I used to be | a spoon bender in a coffee pot but we ran out of spoons and I lost my jo Then [am a bottle duster in a sp easy, but we sell our stuff so fast there is i never no dust around and I lose that job.” “What do you think of the depres- sion?” I ask this financial genius. “LT think it is only in its cracks, “But it will never take the place of the old-fashioned night-shirt.” Well, Mamie, they have a ping-pong table there. (Continued on page 26) comicbooks.com