Life, 1928-01-05 · page 24 of 34
Life — January 5, 1928 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces typical of 1920s-30s Life magazine humor: **"That Schoolboy Complexion"** mocks shaving-cream advertisements' exaggerated claims about skin softness. A boy sneaks his father's razors, enjoys the advertised results, then is caught and threatened with a beating—undermining the ad's premise that this product brings dignity. **"Just Between Us Girls"** satirizes gossipy women's conversation, using emphatic capitalization to mock their breathless, superficial chatter about romantic drama. The narrator describes her guilt over a suitor (Tom Dribble) who's now pursuing another woman, speaking in performative concern typical of social pretense. **"Real Understanding"** offers quick one-liners about sympathy—the second joke implies the untempted woman deserves sympathy for missing excitement. The **telephone booth cartoon** (caption only visible) appears to satirize new self-service technology, likely mocking mechanical innovation or public behavior changes. The humor targets advertising claims, female gossip culture, and social hypocrisy—common Life magazine subjects reflecting period attitudes.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
22 Life That Schoolboy Complexion AS soon as he was done shaving he felt his face with a critical hand, To his glowing surprise, he found his skin appealingly soft to the touch. It had a luxuri- ant smoothness of texture that had been unanticipated. Its velvety evenness tingled exhilarat- ingly at his caress. The shaving-cream advertisement had not made untrue pretensions. Not even the stub of one hair rasped the ex- pectant surface of his palm. The razor blade was as guar- anteed. At the sound of a heavy step he started guiltily. The door opened, and an exasperated voice cried: “I told you before, you young rascal, that I'd give you a whipping if I caught you using my shaving materials again. Now, then, come with me and bring the razor strop with you.” Harry Epstein. “Well, that was a good, clean show.” “Yes, I thought it was a dud, too.” anything} on hop wai: New Three-Minute, Centrifugal, Self-Einptying Pay Telephone Booths, UST BETWEEN US GIR “NAY dear, I'm all-of-a-BIB-and-TUCKer at this point—I ACtually AM, because I feel TERribly consciENtious-stricken, sort of, about Tom DRIBble, my dear, because did you HEAR about the MAD RUSH he’s giving that odd SABra SY Mington, my dear? Sim- ply EV’rybody is TALKing about it and I HONestly feel TERribly GUILTy, sort of, because in a WAY, my dear, I feel sort of reSPONsible because, you see, last WEEK Tom proposed to me for about the FORty- ‘leventh TIME and I simply TOLD him that I simply FELT just the SAME as I always HAD felt about him, do you know what I mean? Well, my dear, he acted AWfully sort of SUNK about it and said I meant MORE to him than anything in the WORLD, my dear, and I said I was TER- ribly SORry and I hoped he didn’t think I'd ever enCOURaged him to fall in love with me or anything because I said I'd feel simply AWful about it if he thought I'd enCOURaged him but he said of COURSE I hadn’t and he guessed he was no GOOD and it didn’t matter what HAPpened to him, ANYways. ACtually, my dear, I was all- of-a-DOOdah because I was SIMply TERri- fied he’d DASH forth and commit SUicide but I mean the NEXT thing I HEARD, my dear, was that this SABra SYMington had got HOLD of him and I think it’s SIMply FOUL, my dear, because a boy who is as DESp’rate as TOM was the other NIGHT REALIy isn’t reSPONsible and of COURSE that’s the WHOLE reason why he’s RUSH- ing SABra, my dear, because I think she’s exACTly the TYPE who'd be unSCRU- p'lous enough to take adVANtage of a boy who was MADly in love with some OTHer girl, my dear—I mean I ACtually DO!” Lloyd Mayer. Real Understanding “T HAVE a lot of sympathy for the woman who is often tempted.” “My sympathy is all for the woman who isn’t.” OTORIST: The new Ford is twice as 4" good as the old one. Humorist: Yes, and, hang it all, not half as funny! comicbooks.com