Life — August 25, 1927 — page 24: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon mocks the business of fattening doormen on a New Jersey farm. The joke plays on 1920s-era class anxieties and labor management peculiarities. The cartoon depicts a farm operation where overweight doormen are being deliberately fed and fattened like livestock. A visiting supervisor inspects the operation, commenting on the doormen's weight gains (86 pounds this week). The chef protests he "couldn't eat another thing," while a doorman boasts that 100 more pounds would make him qualified for a better position. The satire targets the era's obsession with physical size as a marker of status—particularly in service roles like doormen, where imposing bulk suggested authority and capability. By literalizing this as an actual agricultural operation, the cartoonist ridicules both the labor practices and the absurd class logic that equated weight with professional qualification. The "little known industries" subtitle adds dry humor, treating this absurdity as though it were a legitimate business enterprise.