Judge — October 3, 1931 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Testing Rubber Checks" - Judge Magazine Cartoon This cartoon satirizes the occupation of testing rubber checks—checks that "bounce" or fail due to insufficient funds. The illustration shows a chaotic courtroom or institutional setting where various figures are literally testing the elasticity of rubber checks depicted as dotted-line trajectories bouncing around the room. The humor derives from the double meaning: "rubber check" is slang for a bad check, but the cartoon depicts them as actual rubber objects with physical bounce properties. The scene parodies both the absurdity of having such an occupation and the frustration of financial fraud. Multiple figures are shown in exaggerated poses reacting to these bouncing checks, suggesting the widespread problem of check fraud in early 20th-century commerce.