The Wasp — 1890 — page 217: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon from *The Wasp* satirizes "Joe" (identity unclear from the image alone), imagining how he might appear upon returning from England. The caption questions whether Joe will resemble the pompous, exaggerated figures depicted—gentlemen in top hats and formal dress, appearing ostentatiously wealthy and affected. The satire targets the common phenomenon of Americans who traveled to England and returned adopting pretentious English mannerisms and fashions. The grotesque caricatures and small dog suggest mockery of aristocratic affectation. The dock/ship setting emphasizes the transatlantic journey's supposed transformative (and ridiculous) effect. The artist (signed "Knoedsburg" or similar) invokes the stereotype that American travelers abroad became insufferably snobbish upon return, abandoning their authenticity for Old World pretension.