The Wasp — 1895 — page 930: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily advertisements for San Francisco theaters and entertainment venues (Baldwin Theatre, California Theatre, etc.), with a small cartoon in the upper left corner titled "By Moonlight." The cartoon depicts two figures in an intimate nighttime scene. The accompanying text reads: "WILLIS—Dearest, you are the light of my life; every-body how late did your mother sit up last night?" The humor appears to be a play on romantic clichés. Willis delivers an overwrought declaration of love ("you are the light of my life"), but his companion's response—asking when his mother went to bed—deflates the sentiment with domestic mundanity. The joke mocks exaggerated romantic rhetoric and suggests the speaker's priorities (or his companion's skepticism about his sincerity) are more practical than passionate.