Life, 1924-10-09 · page 24 of 36
Life — October 9, 1924 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous comic strip featuring **Skippy**, a mischievous boy character, and a frustrated shopkeeper. The joke satirizes childhood behavior: Skippy enters the store with a shopping list (or just seventeen cents) and proceeds to ask the price of nearly everything in the shop—clothespins, bird seed, lamp shades, kerosene oil, condensed milk, tea, olives—in rapid succession. The humor lies in the **contrast between Skippy's endless inquiries and his extremely limited budget** (seventeen cents). The exasperated storekeeper finally demands to know what Skippy actually wants to buy, but Skippy realizes he's been so focused on comparison-shopping that he's forgotten what he came for in the first place. This reflects a relatable childhood experience: getting distracted by curiosity rather than purposeful shopping. The satire gently mocks both childish absent-mindedness and the tedious nature of retail customer service.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Skippy: Mow MUCH ARE THE CLOTHES: FIVE CENTS A DOZE “WoW MUCIL FOR BIRD SEED?” “TEN CENTS, “AND THEM LAMP SHADES?” “PIPTEEN AND A QUARTER.” “KEROSENE OIL, A GALLON, How MucH?” “THIRTE CONDENSED MILK? < AND FIFTEEN.” “WOW MUCIL ARE YA ASKIN’ FOR TEA?” “OOLONG OR ENGLISH BREAKFAST?” “sor.” “PIPTY AND SIXTY A POUND. IN THAT BROWN JUG DEH “NONE 0" YA BUSINESS,’ “wow MUCH FOR THOS RED “OLIVES—A QUARTER.” Storekeeper: 1 CAN'T BE MaAvIN’ you TAKE UP MY TIME LIKE THIS—WHAT D'YA WANT? Skippy: it’s no use! 1 CAN’T THINK OF WHAT I WAS TO GET ON SEVENTEEN CENTS. comicbooks.com