Life — March 8, 1923 — page 23: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This six-panel comic satirizes the difficulty of quitting smoking. It depicts an everyman character attempting to quit cigarettes for a month "to prove" smoking doesn't affect his health, particularly his sore throat. The satire progresses through his failed willpower: he decides to quit abruptly, then compromises by tapering instead. Downtown, a "gnawing feeling" drives him to distraction. He chews gum for two hours without relief. Desperate and unable to identify what he's missing, he returns home—where smoking immediately "does" satisfy him. The joke's point: smokers convince themselves cigarettes aren't addictive or harmful, yet their bodies immediately betray this denial upon quitting. The comic mocks the rationalization and self-deception smokers employ, particularly the claim that throat irritation has "nothing to do" with smoking. It's anti-smoking satire targeting contemporary denial about cigarette addiction.