Life, 1924-05-15 · page 11 of 46
Life — May 15, 1924 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous illustrated essay mocking what appears to be Professor T. Hopkinson Rogers (named in the left margin), presented as an expert on prehistoric dinosaurs. The satire works by treating the dinosaur as if it were a contemporary character with absurd human qualities—it "used to snoop abroad at night," has a "grin," and the professor describes its behaviors with pseudo-scientific authority. The joke targets professorial pretension: Rogers confidently explains dinosaur anatomy and habits with the same tone used for serious natural history, despite the subjects being obviously ridiculous (a dinosaur that ate peanuts, had a "doughty" personality, fought "fiercely drunk"). The repeated small illustrations of Rogers lecturing reinforce that this is satirizing academic pomposity and the absurdity of presenting speculative prehistoric knowledge as established fact.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE DOUGHTY __ “Prof. T. Hesper te whom we are [for the facts in this article} THE PREHISTORIC DINOSAUR, antedi- luvian bug-of- war, soup bone, the prehistoric unit of measurement. was ninety feet and sixteen inches long. It used to [Dinosaurs head above | |a very tall peanut tree,| thereby verifying Prof. Rogers's contention. | “snift” sniff the evening breeze above the tallest peanut trees and gargle to its mate its plaintive song. Dinosaur hair. Tt fought the fierce diplodocus and ate the tough geewhatacus. Dinosaur hair. ‘Twas wildest when abattling for its young. It used to snoop & abroad at night, an awful customer to fight; it had ES KS NNN scratches made by | Dinosaurs tongue [em sets rocks | a ten-foot, double saw-edged tongve! a tame Dinowur ip leash. hy — The chubby baby Dinosaur was something awful as a gnawer, like every youngster when it starts to teethe. It bit its mother’s tail at times but Savr tush in the Tillamook Cheese And Natural History Museum. Mother overlooked its crimes, except to lam it till it couldn't breathe, The Dino hada limpid eye that so deceived the passerby hed wag h his tail (the passerby) —and vanish. You know— the Dino's grin would spread, he'd grab the stranger He is confident tt an because it 5 crached by the head and down hed go. The Dinosaur was clannish. =F The faithful Chinese cectie, Him Som Gy, whe accomy Pref. butte Asatis vclovint ane The Rhino- loxclophoden would cheerfully bite off a ton Lia tend of Dinosauric hide and steak and gristle. Dy The Dinosaur would just step on the Rhincloxolophodon, Prof. Rogers seaing olf a ] blast in his Dincseure excavations. He belds the recerd for speed in this work. : : then lick up every drop and scrap and bristle. And thus the Dinosaur reveals how satisfactory it feels to make the most of folks Soing around a corner] (view from below). we'd like to slaughter; except today we'd likely stew the folks that I'm alluding to. Method of freshly wash splendid cook. And so’s the daughter. conventional porter [Prof Rogers in bis | comicbooks.com