Life, 1929-01-18 · page 20 of 44
Life — January 18, 1929 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a tall-tale comic about an impossibly long golf hole-in-one. The joke satirizes the exaggerated fishing-story tradition—a golfer claims his ball traveled an absurd 2,000+ miles across improbable adventures before landing in the cup. The narrative absurdly chains impossible events: the ball gets caught on a "Gilfooligus bird," struck by lightning, caught in a tidal wave, chased by a sea rat and cat (across islands named "Bull Hooey"), and finally rolls into the cup on the 11th green. "Bull Hooey Island" is clearly a pun on "bull" (lies). The entire conceit mocks boastful sportsmen who embellish trivial events into fantastical sagas. The cartoonist exaggerates the form to ridicule its absurdity—by making the story *completely* impossible, Life emphasizes how ridiculous such tall tales actually are when taken literally. The humor targets masculine braggadocio about sports exploits.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life $= —_ On our 510-yard eleventh hole—not wishing to overdrive the green—I chose my trusty mashie-niblick for my tee shot— Believe it or not— my ball then stuck on the war club of the Bull Hooey cham- pion Marathon runner just as he was A Hole-in-One ep, My ball was a bit high and stuck on the bill of a Gil- fooligus bird flying over the green—the astonished fowl flew for home and mother custom on Bull Hooey Island for a Marathon runner to signal for a faster pace by throwing his war club—and skipping the sad details— my ball flew off the war club and lit in SY fit Some 2000 miles out on the Atlantic my ball was knocked off the beak of the unfortunate young Gilfooligus by a playful bole of lightning—bouncing 1300 miles southwest to the tropical island of Bull Hooey. A huge tidal wave be coming untidy about that time—caught the hat containing my ball —carrying it on its crest 1782 miles and seven inches back to the shores of Long Island Sound. setting a new missionary paced record for the missionary’s hat—just as it was 100 times around the island. knocked right into the sea. my ball in its mouth this rat was then Most fortun- ately for me— this was the very green my tee shot was made for—In_ his hurry the rat dropped my ball and it rolled into the cup—giving me the longest holc-in- ‘one ever made. 42 miles by a fast New Rochelle cat—the chase eventually leading across our 11th green, A hungry Neptune Island sea rat hap- pened to swim by the missionary’s hat as it drifted along the shore and peeked inside—mistaking my ball for a piece of cheese— comicbooks.com