Life, 1887-12-22 · page 1 of 18
Life — December 22, 1887 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Little Lay" - Life Magazine, December 22, 1887 This is a simple visual joke with no apparent political content. The cartoon shows a well-dressed man (identified as "Bachelor B.") dining with a woman. The humor relies on a double meaning of the word "lay"—referring both to eggs and to an illicit romantic encounter. The joke: Bachelor B. comments that the egg before him is very small. Mary (likely a servant) responds that the egg was laid that very morning. The implication is that Bachelor B. is making an inappropriate innuendo, mistakenly treating "lay" as a euphemism when Mary is simply answering literally about the egg's recent origin. This represents Victorian-era humor based on misunderstanding and double meanings rather than overt satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
comicbooks.com NUMBER 260. A LITTLE LAY. ES, SIR, IT 18; BUT IT WAS ONLY LAID THIS MORNING, SIR, i a “ 3 3 ‘ z a 5 3 = 3 = & Bachelor B.: WHY, MARY, THAT'S A VERY SMALL EGG | Mary: Y! g = a i 2 a g € ° “ G > g kd 4% a 2 4 2 S Py nt 3 g % re) a a hy oO rs) a @ 4 ° De 3 re) a VOLUME X.