Life — January 26, 1928 — page 24: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a visual pun from Life magazine satirizing a presidential inauguration ceremony. The cartoon depicts 21 men with exaggerated, gleaming smiles arranged in formal rows, all wearing business attire and ties. The joke plays on "twenty-one gun salute"—the traditional military honor for a new president—by substituting "gums" for "guns." Since these are members of a dental association, they're literally displaying their teeth/gums in a cheerful salute. The satire gently mocks both dental professionals' enthusiasm and the pomp of presidential ceremonies. The cartoonist exaggerates their grins to absurd levels, suggesting dentists' perpetual cheerfulness and their professional preoccupation with teeth. This appears to be humorous commentary rather than political critique—purely a visual wordplay joke exploiting the homophone between "guns" and "gums."