Life, 1923-11-01 · page 21 of 41
Life — November 1, 1923 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine comic strip uses an American football game as a framework for domestic comedy. The narrative follows a family attending a stadium event, with the humor centered on marital discord and parental anxiety. The central joke: a man named Bill has brought his wife and children to the game, but his presence offends them—apparently due to his drinking ("owing to drink"). His old room-mate is located in the crowd and yelled at. The strip's final, darkest panel presents "football's saddest picture": the family taking a last look at Bill's celebrating college classmates, with the caption sardonically asking "Is marriage worth it?" The satire mocks both masculine sports enthusiasm and matrimonial regret. For modern readers, the humor relies on early-20th-century assumptions about husbands escaping domesticity through sports while wives endure awkward public situations. The title "Football en Famille" suggests pretense—presenting this decidedly unpleasant family outing as refined entertainment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE CLIMB TO ROW DOUBLE Z, CHEERING 'S WILL ie FOUND UNDER THREE 4 ON THE FLAGGING FAMILY. y BUTTONED COATS F TIGH ANE 8 9 10 TECTS A DRAUGHT OVER THE TOP BILL, THE OLD ROOM-MATE, IS LOCATED ¥, OWING TO DRINK, IS SUCH STADIUM AND ORDERS EXTRA AND YELLED AT. AS TO OFFEND MOTHER AND MYSTIFY SWEATERS, THE CHILDREN. GLUYAS, LIAS HINKS OF A QUESTION TO THE BALL ON*THE ONE-YARD LINE, FOURTH FOOTBALL'S SADDEST PICTURE: THE MAN 0 EMILY JUST AS A FORWARD DOWN, REMINDS HER THAT YOU LEFT THE WITH HIS FAMILY TAKING A LAST LOOK AT PASS IS/THROW) FURNACE-DRAUGHT OPEN. HIS CELEBRATING CLASS-MAT! IS MAR- RIAGE WORTH IT? tball ¢n Famille comicbooks.com