Judge, 1931-12-12 · page 8 of 36
Judge — December 12, 1931 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The New Menace" - Judge Magazine Satire This article by Ellis Parker Butler satirizes radio broadcasting's unintended consequences. The main cartoon shows earthquakes caused by radio waves penetrating the ground—a humorous exaggeration of early 20th-century anxieties about new technology's hidden dangers. Butler specifically references a broadcast by William Cullup about "The Condition of the Republican Party in Kansas," arguing that unpopular radio content "nowhere to go" gets broadcast indiscriminately. The satire suggests radio stations lack quality control, broadcasting trivial political speeches that paradoxically cause literal damage. The secondary cartoons mock unrelated domestic chaos—a Christmas-obsessed child and a train station porter. These appear to be standalone Judge humor pieces rather than connected to the main radio satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE sent out by Station WWAX at full force, and the minute the announcer We will now hear a talk by William Cullup on the condition of the Republican Party in Kan- sas,” every radio set is switched off. The whole talk of William Cullup is thus sent out into the air and wanders around with no place to go and, after floating around a while, it finds a crack in the ground and pours into it. One broadcast thus slithering into a crack in the ground does little harm. But when a lot of political talks, tenor solos, houschold hints and other refused matter seep into a crack or cave, only a match or an electric spark is needed to explode them, rending the rocks and causing a dangerous earthquake. The only remedy I can suggest is a law compelling all > radio sending stations to maintain a sufficient number of receiving sets to ubsorb the blah programs, unless—and this may be better—the sender be fitted with car-phones so that the program he is broadcasting returns immedi- ately into himself as soon as he sends it. And serve him right. “Well, this certainly beats shoveling the walk!” THE NEW MENACE By Ellis Parker Butler ur increased number of carthquakes has been worry- ing me quite a lot and I have traced them directly to the radio numbers that nobody listens to. The popular numbers cause no trouble, being shot out into the air by the broadcasting stations, passing through the air and into the ears of listeners where they pass down through the legs into the ground in the form of innocuous inaudi- bility. t The unpopular numbers are quite another matter. ; These are sent out into the air and have nowhere to go, every radio set being tuned against them. We will con- b sider, for example, a talk by William Cullup on “The Condition of the Republican Party in Kansas.” This is “Porter!” Last Straw I HAVE seen my margins weaken, Finally giving up the ghost; I have seen my favorite bang: Coyly languish at the post; I have seen my kings on deuces Licked by aces over fours, And I've suffered some from contract With the most astounding scores. I have lost my money golfing, In a dozen different ways; I have lost my week’s allowance In my penny pitching 83 But there’s one thing makes me crazy And I think I have good grounds— I'll be paid my sweepstake winnings The doctor’s child gets a pre-Christmas idea of the contents In depreciated pounds! of all the Christmas packages in-the house. —Pavt C. Frencnt ‘ comicbooks.com