Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, March 1921 · page 30 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #18 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humor advice column from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang*, a popular satirical magazine of the 1920s-30s. The format mimics genuine advice columns but delivers jokes instead. The humor relies on: **Double entendres and wordplay**: Readers with suggestive names ("Lotta Bull," "Fletcher Eyes," "Iva Sharpe Payne") ask innocent questions that Captain Billy answers with cheeky non-sequiturs. His "fine sight" isn't women's legs but a rifle scope; the "three plagues" are medical/social puns. **Prohibition-era jokes**: References to "one-half of one percent beer" mock Prohibition-era low-alcohol beverages as ineffective—Captain Billy's math joke suggests you'd need 200 such beers to get drunk. **Sexual innuendo**: The opening exchange about girls' "brevity of attire" and "smoked glasses" (used to hide scandalous viewing) plays on 1920s anxieties about modern women's shorter skirts. The column's appeal lay in its cheeky attitude toward taboo subjects—women, alcohol, sexuality—presented through puns and false naïveté.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
28 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Dear Captain Bill—I see where you discuss at length the brevity of girls' attire, but I never see you object in your writings. How do you stand, anyway? —Noonan Knight. Well, you don't see me wearing any smoked glasses. * * * Dear Skipper Bill—What's your idea of a fine sight? —Lotta Bull. I suppose you think I'll say hosiery, but guess again. My idea of a fine sight is the one I have on my bear hunting rifle. * * * Dear Whiz Bang Billy—What's the most useful food? —Fletcher Eyes. Chicken. You can eat it before it is born and after it is dead. * * * Dear Doctor Billy—What are the three great plagues of the world? —Iva Sharpe Payne. My expert diagnosis reveals that the three great-est are: Water on the knee, liquor on the hip and woman on the brain. Which Paynes you most? * * * Dear Skipper—Do you think it possible to get intoxicated on one-half of one percent beer? —Ring-around A. Rosey. Sure, two hundred bottles of one-half of one per-cent equals one hundred percent drunk.