Life — April 26, 1928 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Englishman's Joke" This comic strip depicts a slapstick scenario where a man (appearing to be British, given the title) repeatedly attempts to attract a lion's attention while the lion ignores him. The man tries various methods—shooting, running, playing music, making noise—each time the lion passes by without noticing. Finally, in the last panel, the lion catches and attacks him. The joke appears to satirize British understatement or obliviousness: the Englishman's polite, ineffectual attempts to get attention fail until the point becomes impossible to miss. The humor relies on the buildup of ignored provocations culminating in violent payoff. The strip's title suggests this exemplifies a particularly British style of humor—dry, understated, with ironic consequences.