Life — December 6, 1923 — page 31: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a sequential comic strip showing a crowded elevator scenario. The title "Out Sixth, Please!" suggests passengers repeatedly requesting the sixth floor stop. The humor derives from the escalating chaos of an overcrowded elevator. Early panels (16-21) show normal boarding, while subsequent panels depict increasingly absurd crowding as more people squeeze inside. By panels 25-27, the space is comically packed with bodies. The final panels shift perspective: panel 28-29 shows someone outside the elevator, while panel 30 reveals the exterior—suggesting the elevator has become so full it's physically distorted or burst outward. This satirizes urban rush-hour transit conditions and the desperation of commuters attempting to fit into inadequate public transportation. The exaggeration emphasizes how ridiculous actual crowding conditions were in early 20th-century cities, making social commentary through absurdist humor about modern metropolitan life.