Life, 1922-11-23 · page 3 of 36
Life — November 23, 1922 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **subscription advertisement disguised as editorial content**. The "Humor-Assimilation Chart" compares two readers' engagement with *Life* magazine over ten weeks: a regular subscriber versus an irregular one. The satirical point: missing even one issue of *Life* causes your "humor assimilation" to drop significantly—the irregular reader's curve plummets after week seven when they missed an issue. The ad argues that *Life* reading must be **habitual and complete** to maintain comedic benefit. The pitch is tongue-in-cheek but serious: readers shouldn't risk missing *Life* for fear of social incompetence or incomplete enjoyment. It's early advertising psychology, using mock-scientific charts to encourage annual subscriptions (saving $2.90).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Humor ~Assimilation Chart Humories Consumed Two readers of LIFE were placed under observation for ten weeks. One was aregular subscriber and the other was one who thought he could read LIFE or leave it alone. Their humor-assimilation curves are shown above, expressed in terms of humories consumed. The unsystematic reader missed LIFE the third and seventh weeks; note how the angle of his humor curve, after each lapse, drops far below that of the regular subscriber. Note particularly the irregular subscriber’s grogginess after missing LIFE the seventh week. This proves conclusively that you should subscribe to LIFE by the year. Are you 100 per cent. efficient as a reader of LIFE? Too many of LIFE’S readers regard LIFE as a pleasure, in- stead of as a serious duty. Perhaps you don’t realize how your power of humor- assimilation is weakened when you miss LIFE for even one week. You must take LIFE REGULARLY if you expect to become proficient. The man who merely buys LIFE from week to week is apt to have his system of LIFE reading broken down by the most unforeseen circum- stances. Recently a man had to ride 100 miles farther than his destination, waiting for LIFE in the club car—there were so many other LIFE stu- dents on the train. Why take the chance of missing an issue of LIFE and having your humor routine all upset? Subscribe for a year. (You save $2.90, by the way.) 7 7 7 SS Sie se CS s 7 So os ? " comicbooks.com