Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1921 · page 14 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #19 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains no illustrations—it's a collection of humorous aphorisms satirizing American social conventions of the 1920s era. The jokes target: **Gender & Romance:** "Man proposes and woman imposes" mocks traditional courtship while suggesting women hold real power. **Economic Reality:** "Home is where the mortgage is" cynically reduces the American dream to debt. **Youth & Morality:** References to "gland days" and girls with "good beginning and a week-end" allude to sexual behavior; "between the cop and the nip" likely references Prohibition-era bootlegging. **Fashion & Propriety:** The knee-length skirt reference reflects 1920s debates over "indecent" hemlines. **Corruption:** The final line directly states politicians are bought by money. The tone is irreverent, deflating bourgeois values and suggesting hypocrisy in American morality and politics—typical of Whiz Bang's satirical approach to post-WWI anxieties and social change.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
12 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Whiz Bang Filosophy Eat, drink—and be careful. * * * A Miss is as good as her smile. * * * Home is where the mortgage is. * * * Man proposes and woman imposes. * * * Fine feathers make fine feather beds. * * * Oh, for the gland, gland days of youth! * * * There's many a slip between the cop and the nip. * * * Many a girl has a good beginning and a week-end. * * * No skirt should be so short as to expose the knee plus ultra. * * * One of the proverbs of politics is, “Money makes the mayor go.”