10-Story Book, February 1928 — page 63: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is an illustration from a pulp magazine featuring two costumed figures at what appears to be a masquerade ball. The image shows a man in a clown costume with baggy pants confronting a woman in a harlequin outfit. Below the illustration is a brief dialogue: the man mentions seeing the woman's newspaper advertisement for a washing machine for sale, but she claims not to have placed such an ad. The man then quotes back what he believes was her ad: "For Sale, washing machine, by a young woman, with a copper bottom?" The humor appears to derive from the double entendre of the phrase "copper bottom."