The Wasp — 1878 — page 381: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a humorous sequential comic strip depicting a dentist named Schneider extracting a patient's tooth. The narrative follows the patient's increasingly dramatic suffering and the dentist's futile attempts at extraction across twelve panels. The satire mocks both dentistry and patient behavior: the patient exaggerates his distress, the dentist struggles with his tools, and the situation escalates from a simple procedure into physical comedy. Panel 11 shows the patient's "overwhelming gratitude" paid in "bad money," likely satirizing both poor payment and insincere thanks. The final panel shows both parties dining together "with keen delight," suggesting reconciliation and restoration of civility after the ordeal—a comedic commentary on Victorian sensibilities about maintaining social propriety regardless of circumstances.