Life — September 21, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Mooning of the 'Flies'" - Explanation This is a satirical play script mocking bureaucratic inefficiency and police incompetence. Officer O'Toole and The Citizen debate trivial matters while a crime occurs nearby—a loft robbery and murder of an old lady. The humor satirizes how officers get distracted by irrelevant details (recipes, poetry, religious quotations) instead of preventing actual crimes. Officer O'Toole obsesses over a rulebook while his duty goes unfulfilled. The illustration shows children playing on a broken fence, seemingly oblivious to danger—perhaps reflecting the play's theme that negligent authorities leave citizens vulnerable. The title suggests incompetence ("mooning"—wasting time foolishly) regarding criminal "flies" (petty criminals or the criminals themselves). This critiques early 20th-century police bureaucracy prioritizing procedure over actual crime prevention.