Life, 1924-10-23 · page 15 of 36
Life — October 23, 1924 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"Warum?" poem** (top left): A satirical critique of American journalism and politics, questioning why journalists ridicule public figures, why satirists lampoon presidential speeches, and why politicians are mocked as incompetent ("inefficient yaps," "bunch of fives"). The poem by Baron Ireland protests excessive media mockery of government officials. **"Responsibilities" cartoon** (center): Shows a woman asking a reclining man if her husband is "hard to manage." He responds that he isn't now—but he was before "he lost his hair a blow on the head didn't hurt him at all." Dark satire suggesting domestic violence ("blow on the head") somehow improved his tractability. **Right-side sections** ("How to Be a Highbrow," "Dentality"): Brief satirical advice columns mocking pretentiousness and humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Warum ? UST why do all the journalists Poke ridicule at public men? What is the reason satirists Lampoon with vitriolic pen The speeches of the President And others In The Government? < Why do the paragraphers jeer And daily in the public prints Paint, with a sly and ghoulish leer, Our statesmen in unroseate tints? Why do they bawl, in accents loud, “Our Solons are a witless crowd"? Why call our representatives A group of inefficient yaps? Why label them a bunch of flivs? A gang of dopes? Boobs? Dumbbells? Saps? Why iterate (to make a close) Something that everybody knows? Baron Ireland, Responsibilities YPPERDALE: So you've finally decided to go to work? Suickersitt: Yes, I've got to support my used car in the style to which it’s been accustomed. “Is YOUR HUSBAND HARD TO MANAGE, NORA?” “HE AIN'T NOW, MISS, BUT BEFORE HE LOST HIS HAIR A BLOW ON THE HEAD DIDN’T HURT*HIM AT ALL.” the English MY CLOTHES Swimmer Channel): (who has just swum HANG IT! 1 LEFT ALL ON THE OTHER SIDE. How to Be a Highbrow DMIRE no than Stravinsky; no painter nd no sculptor less re- stein, composer earlier earlier than Pica cent than Claim that you understand Eliot's “The Wasteland,”and Joyce's “Ulysses,” and swear that you much prefer a Russian tragedy played in Russian to “Rain” or “The Follies” or “St. Joan” done by Americans. Extol Charlie Chaplin, not because he makes the buttons pop off your vest, but because he typifies to you Man's Comic Attempt to Be Something Other than a Miserable Little Mite. And go to see Dempsey fight, not because you like a good scrap, but because you are interested in sce- ing “so fine a specimen of the human animal revert to his natu- rally barbaric state.” B. B. Dentality 7 ARJORY always finds some- thing to laugh at, even in the She humor, most depressing situations! has a corking sense of hasn't she?” She has a corking set of teeth.” ELL, we've known of rolling bones that gathered consider- able moss, comicbooks.com