Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #18 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two humorous pieces typical of 1920s satirical magazines: **"Why He Needs Paper"** is a joke about a delinquent newspaper subscriber. A farmer, unable to pay his subscription, refuses the editor's increasingly absurd payment suggestions (chickens, crops, corn cobs). The farmer's punchline—that if he had corn cobs, he wouldn't need the newspaper—is a crude reference to using newspaper as toilet paper, a common practice during economic hardship. **"A Choice of Evils"** presents a brief romantic joke: when warned against marrying a wealthy woman with a questionable past, the man pragmatically chooses a secure future over moral judgment. Both pieces reflect working-class hardship and irreverent humor typical of Whiz Bang's audience and era.