Life, 1922-12-28 · page 12 of 37
Life — December 28, 1922 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the syndication business for newspaper humor content. The cartoon at top shows what appears to be a street vendor or hustler with a sign advertising "25,000 TURKEY DINNERS for the POOR Each Death" — likely mocking exploitative charitable schemes or sensationalist newspaper stunts. The article discusses how writers could make money by creating "syndicated features" — jokes, funny poems, and stories sold to multiple newspapers simultaneously. The author lists examples of popular syndicated content types: funny stories, limericks, and "darky stories" (period racial stereotypes presented as humor). The satire targets both the formulaic nature of mass-produced newspaper humor and the financial incentives driving lowest-common-denominator content to maximize syndication profits.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
for the “Hey! Did ye get my letter?” Easy Money on the Syndicate Circuit OR some time past there have appeared in the newspapers various syndicate features signed by well-known writers under the general captions of [Jokes Funny Stories, etc. Poems After reading a good many of them I find myself overcome with admiration -of the genius who first devised this method of augmenting his bank account. Not knowing just how to go about forming a connection of that sort, and loving a bank balance as the G. O. P. loves the Tariff Bill, I am taking this method of letting the syndicate crowd know that I can be approached. _ I now append a slight description of what I can furnish. First let us take My Favorite CHarapes (Sam- ple): Ist part—A man comes into the room, turns and goes out. 2nd part —A hand is thrust through the cur- tains holding a man’s hat. 3rd part—Man returns wearing hat. The whole forms the name of a My Favorite well-known American city situated on an island. Answer, Manhattan. My Favorite + CoNnuUNDRUMS (Sample) : (a) Why is a railway train going at full speed like a certain foreign country? Answer, It’s Russian. (b) Where would you go if you were a seal fisherman? Answer, To furrin’ parts. I have this line in various lengths and patterns. They should last an idiot asylum a life-time. My Favorite Limericks (Sam- ple): “There Austin Whose ways at a dance were ex- haustin—” I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t do much with the limericks—the only good ones are, well, you know —no, I don’t believe I can handle limericks. My Favorite Tiny Tor Stories (Sample) : (a) Little Mable, aged five, was asked by the minister how old she was. Mable thought a moment and then she said, “None of your busi- ness, you poor dumbell.” was a young lady of (b) Johnny was saying his prayers—“Now pray for Aunt Amelia,” said his mother, and he did. My Favorite ExampLes oF ELo- QUENCE (Sample): (a) “You shall’ not press down this crown of thorns upon the brow of labor; you shall not crucify man- kind upon a cross of gold. W. J. Bryan.” (b) “Beginning next month, Mr. Bedeck, your salary will be raised three dollars a week.” My Favorite Darxy Srories (Sample) : A traveler on a turnpike in the South came to a toll-gate. Looking about for someone to open the gate his eyes fell upon an old colored man asleep on a bench in the sun. Prodding him awake with his whip he asked him if he were in charge. “Yassah,” responded the old fellow without’ moving, “I’se the present recumbent.” I wish to remind the syndicate gentlemen that in no case will I re- sort to the Farmer’s Almanac— which is more than I can say for some. R.K. comicbooks.com