Life, 1924-11-13 · page 30 of 42
Life — November 13, 1924 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks the era's automobile craze by treating a car trip to a football game as if it *were* the football game itself. The humor relies on: **The Main Joke:** The narrative describes their journey in football terminology—the car "sprinting," gaining yardage, suffering injuries (a flat tire), executing trick plays, and finally "winning" by reaching the stadium. The punchline is their captain orders them to leave immediately and race home instead of watching the actual game, treating the drive itself as the real competition. **Social Context:** This reflects 1920s America's fascination with automobiles as status symbols and recreation. "Motoring" was entertainment; getting somewhere mattered less than the journey itself. **The Co-ed Comb cartoon** (top) is a separate joke about attracting female football fans with a fashionable hair comb. **The dialogue jokes** mock spectators' poor stadium views and marriage compatibility, the latter being unrelated filler content typical of *Life* magazine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
22 Bucking the Blue-Book Football as It Is Motored To E had received a kick-off from home in our seven-passenger car at 8 a.M., taking along the regulation number of cleven spectators to a car team and two substitutes who had horned in on the party. After some excellent broken-field running through the suburbs, we were tackled by a motorcycle cop and penalized $25. We lined up again and advanced rapidly on ups and downs. Ona broad stretch of road, the car sprinted and made a substantial gain by skirting our opponent cars’ Icft ends. The cheer- ing changed to groans, however, when ats THE NEW CO-ED COMB, DESIGNED AS A MAGNET FOR FOOTBALL PLAYERS one of the best tires on our team was injured. Time was taken out and a first-string substitute sent in. With “HOW WERE YOUR SEATS?” “ROTTEN ; COULDN'T SEE A THING.” “OURS WERE WORSE THAN THAT; NOBODY COULD SEE US.” the old bulldog spirit, we forged ahead, making small but cumulative gains through right and left traffic. But it was grueling work and it cost us sore before we had finished. When the goal was in sight, our sturdy left mudguard crumpled under the impact of a brutal adversary. Finally we executed a most deceptive shift, masked by a set of trick arm- signals. Our gallant car hit the line hard, broke through and staggered up to the field. By inquiry, we discovered that the football game was not yet over. That established the fact that our car had won against overwhelming odds. But at the moment when we were about to rush to our seats in the sta- dium, our captain spoke sternly from his place at the wheel: “Men, you have motored hard and well. I am proud of you. Our dear old Alma Motor is proud of you. But let us make this victory decisive. By turning around and going back now while our adversaries are still in their seats at the game, we'll beat the whole shooting-match home !” With an outburst of loyal cheering which dwarfed the sounds from the field, we disappeared down the road in a cloud of our own dust. Fairfax Downey. Compatibility *S° you really consider that your mar- riage has been a success?” “Well, all I can say is, we've been married ten years and never a cross- word puzzle between us.” ZFINITION of a football game— Twenty-two nice young men en- tirely surrounded by maniacs. comicbooks.com