Life, 1886-03-11 · page 11 of 16
Life — March 11, 1886 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Satirical Essay on Editorial Operations This is a humorous piece where *Life* magazine describes its fictional "operations," using exaggerated satire to mock rival publications and joke submissions. **Key targets:** - **Punch magazine** (British rival): mocked for being so old that *Life* claims to imprison 562 poets and 247 artists who plagiarized from Punch's 1849 issues - **Puck magazine** (American competitor): insulted as so bad their editors belong in the dungeon - **The New York Tribune**: cited as so morally degrading it can "sicken" even hardened criminals **The "dungeon" joke** (Plate IV): depicts where *Life* allegedly executes or drowns unwanted submissions and derivative humorists, with a special chamber for readers who find indecent meanings in their content. **The satire's point**: *Life* positions itself as superior arbiter of American humor and taste by viciously mocking competitors and bad submissions. The crude brutality described (drowning in Central Park) emphasizes the ruthlessness of editorial gatekeeping—presented as darkly comedic rather than serious. This reflects 1880s-90s magazine warfare and competitive humor publishing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Prate III. INTERIOR VIEW OF INNER OFFICE. calling attention to the very important bulletin in the left foreground, we continue with plate two, which represents a philanthropic venture we have lately entered upon. It is a little chateau that we use for aspiring artists who want us to tell them how to draw. free of charge, reserving the right to slide them into a dark, dank moat, of which we have a full supply on hand, when they think they have learned the art and begin to con- tribute. In the fourth plate a really thrilling part of our business is” being transacted. It is a formality through which we have to go about four times a day, and consists in filing away youths who try to pass off as original, jokes that Punch printed in "49. The last census of our Punch dungeon dem- onstrates the appalling fact that there are 562 poets, 247 artists and 96 “‘humorists” buried there. This, of course, is exclusive of the editors of Puck, whom we have not yet been able to induce to enter. i This particular dungeon is often so crowded that prisoners are taken out in squads of ten and drowned in Central Park. There is a special chamber seventy-seven feet lower down for the accommodation of those heavenly beings who are constantly seeing a sacreligious and indecent meaning in the things they meet in Lire, Our treatment for these unfor- tunates is a regular course of the American daily paper. They soon become so familiar with all that is criminal and We take boarders here | forbidden that even LIFE seems decently clean and pure. In extreme cases, when nothing else can sicken him, the N.Y. Tribune is placed in his hands—a half hour of that generally “fetches” the most obstinate and cal- lous nature. As some of our lady friends have expressed a desire to know what the author of our deli- cate ver- ses looks like, and as several of our credit- ors would find it conven- ient to become THE DUNGEON. comicbooks.com