Life — July 28, 1927 — page 20: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical comic mocks Charles Lindbergh's recent decision to decline a lucrative Hollywood film offer. The scenario shows a dentist and patient in conversation: the dentist extracts a tooth while casually discussing how Lindbergh supposedly turned down a million dollars for movies. The patient expresses envy at such wealth, while the dentist offers unsolicited advice about not smoking immediately after dental work. The joke's satire operates on two levels: it ridicules Lindbergh's rejection of easy money (suggesting his decision was foolish), while simultaneously poking fun at the dentist character for offering sanctimonious life advice while performing routine work. The juxtaposition between the dentist's humble profession and his commentary on a famous aviator's million-dollar decisions underscores the absurdity of such casual moralizing.