Judge, 1932-09 · page 13 of 36
Judge — September 1932 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine Cartoon Analysis This page satirizes marital dynamics and spousal attention. The main dialogue shows a wife pestering her husband "John" about a story he's reading—demanding he engage with her questions about plot details (marriages, children, a horse-thief's hanging). John responds dismissively with monosyllables ("Uh-huh"), infuriating her. The wife accuses him of inconsistency: he claims she should take interest in things, yet refuses to encourage her by discussing what she cares about. Her complaint highlights the paradox of a disengaged husband. The accompanying cartoons illustrate the chaos of married life: one shows a man juggling luggage (domestic burdens); another depicts him fleeing or being chased (marital conflict). The caption "That's funny—I coulda sworn I had a gun in my pocket" is dark humor—the husband jokingly threatens to shoot himself rather than endure his wife's nagging, a common trope in early 20th-century comedy about matrimonial misery.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Judge marry that other girl that said she'd r marry any man but him? “Yeah! He m her!” “Oh—what a shame. I liked the Southern girl. What becomes of her? Who does she marry? Somebody Uh-huh.” What do they do after they're married? I mean does something se happen to them or is that all about them? Don’t they have chil- dren or something?” “Yeah . . . children.” $6] DON'T believe it. You're just mumbling to amuse yourself. You're not paying the slightest at- tention to what I s John! What becomes of the one that gets hanged for horse-stealing? How does the book end “Uh-huh . “John! Answer me! How does it all turn out? What becomes of every- body?” “Uh... all die...” “They don't! Why, it says right here on the last page about the great yvreat grandchildren planning to carry on the family for generations and generations! Oh, I think you're the meanest thing! You're so incon- sistent. Telling me I ought to show interest in things and then absolutely refusing to give me any encourage- ment at all!” “That's funny—I coulda sworn I had a gun in my pocket.” Porter, sir? un comicbooks.com