Life, 1921-03-24 · page 26 of 34
Life — March 24, 1921 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This two-part page satirizes early 20th-century consumer culture and advertising. **The top cartoon** jokes about selective female attention: a woman learns nothing from church sermon but instead memorizes the pattern of another woman's fashionable hat—reducing spiritual instruction to fashion consumption. **The main dialogue piece** mocks how advertisers exploit mundane complaints to drive sales. Two commuters debate shaving: the first obsessively complains about razor performance, while the second protests this is tedious. When challenged, the first invokes "duty to humanity"—arguing that without constant complaints about shaving problems, advertisers couldn't sell razors and soap. The satire suggests advertisers have convinced consumers their personal grievances serve a social purpose, making them willing vehicles for endless product promotion. **The closing note** sardonically contrasts "compulsory churchgoing" (Blues/conservatives) and Soviet "compulsory theatre-attendance" (Reds/communists), suggesting America's equivalent coercion is advertising—mandatory consumer participation disguised as freedom.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“WELL, MY DEAR, I HOPE YOU LEARNED SOMETHING DURING THE SERMON THIS MORNING.” “I WOULDN’T HAVE MISSED IT FOR THE WORL! T LEARNED THE PATTERN OF THE SMARTEST HAT YOU EVER SAW. What the Commuter Talks About CENE: Smoking car of the 8:06. Finst Commuter (in a loud, but mournful voice): Jones, would you believe it, my morning shave is a constant source of torture to me? Try as I may, the razor slips and slides— pulls and hurts. It’s a curse having a wiry beard and a tender skin like mine! Seconn Commuter (timidly) : I know, I know, but let’s talk about something else this morning. For land’s sakes, Jones, don't let'’s—— First Commuter (indignantly): Don't let's what? Seconn Commuter (desperately): Don't let’s spend the whole ride to town going over this shaving business. Have we discussed anything else all year? No!!!!! Nothing but wiry beards and tender skin, and why your razor pulls and scrapes, and how the little teeth look under a microscope, and why some soap gives you a good lather, and another soap doesn’t, and why you have to hone a razor, and why your face smarts. Of course it's all right for a little while, Jones, but when you keep drumming at it for months on end—— (Pauses appealingly.) First Commuter (grimly): Yes, go on. Srconp Commuter: Well, I just can’t stand it, that’s all. For heaven's sake, Jones, there’s the league of nations, and the Republican Party and Bolshevism, and the stock market—come now, let's lay off shaving—just for fifteen minutes! First Commuter (amazed): Why man! Can it be possible? Seconn Commuter (encouraged): Of course it’s possible! It's just as easy! Your mind’s in a rut—that's all. First Commuter (with calm dignity): No, no. You mit take me. Can it be that as a commuter you have forgotten what you owe to humanity? Seconp Commuter (also amazed): owed humanity anything! First Commuter: Well, we do! It’s our duty to humanity to keep talking about shaving. Tired as we may be of the subject, still we must forge on. Can jit be possible you dost see why? Can it be possible you are so short-sighted? If we didn’t talk about how our razors pulled and our faces smarted, if we didn’t wonder why our soap was sticky, of whether it is better to use hot water or cold—how would any- one ever write any advertisements about razors or shaving materials? How could humanity ever find out why one razor is better than another? Who would be left to offer the touch of human interest? Even an advertisement about shaving must have a subject, and we are the subjects. We always have been, and now they depend on us. Can we leave them in the lurch for a selfish whim? 4 Seconp Commuter: Of course we can't! Jones, I believe you are right. (Sighs.) You were saying, I think, that yor find shaving a torture? Well, have you ever thought it may te the soap you are using that’s wrong? Now soap. - - (Curtain.) Why, I didn’t think we TH Blues of this country want compulsory churchgoing. and the Reds of Russia enforce compulsory theatre-at tendance. What great strides Freedom seems to be making! comicbooks.com