Life — January 7, 1926 — page 15: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a satirical cartoon about Brigham Young, the Mormon leader, supposedly considering "buying a little town car for family use." The joke plays on Young's famous polygamy—he had numerous wives—by depicting a massive "covered wagon show" filled with enormous wagons and what appear to be many people (representing his large family). The cartoon mocks the incongruity of a religious leader known for maintaining multiple households considering a modern automobile instead of his traditional covered wagons. It's a humorous critique using exaggeration: showing an absurdly oversized, carnival-like wagon exhibition to satirize the impracticality of transporting such a large family unit, while also poking fun at Mormonism's polygamous practices, which remained socially controversial in early 20th-century America.