The Wasp — 1879 — page 48: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page presents a burlesque theatrical piece mocking British colonial attitudes. The play features caricatured "Black Hottentots" and "White Hottentots" characters with exaggerated names like "Dudu" and "Hackinscrim," employing crude ethnic stereotypes common to 19th-century satire. The illustrations show characters in absurd costumes engaged in slapstick comedy. The dialogue parodies formal British speech while the scenarios are deliberately ridiculous—the satire appears directed at pretentious theatrical conventions and British colonial society's self-regard, rather than endorsing the ethnic mockery itself. The piece exemplifies period satirical humor that combined social criticism with deeply offensive racial caricature, reflecting The Wasp's approach to irreverent burlesque comedy.