Life — June 9, 1921 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Political Cartoon Analysis: "Intolerable" The top cartoon depicts a policeman confronting a menagerie owner beside a cage containing what appears to be a laughing hyena. The caption reads: "Policeman (to menagerie owner): Yiz'll have to get rid o' that laughin' hyena, if yez can't make him stop laughin' on Sunday." **The joke**: This satirizes blue laws—religious regulations prohibiting activities on Sundays. The absurdist humor comes from applying these restrictions to an animal's involuntary behavior. The policeman represents overzealous enforcement of puritanical Sunday laws, while the hyena's uncontrollable laughter mocks the impossibility of compliance. The cartoon criticizes such laws as unreasonable intrusions on personal freedom, even extending to the ridiculous notion of policing an animal's natural conduct.