Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1921 · page 31 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #22 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humor advice column featuring absurdist jokes disguised as reader letters. The comedy relies on non-sequiturs and unexpected punchlines rather than political commentary. Key jokes include: a pun about electrocuting corn; a cynical definition of "self respect" as avoiding getting caught doing wrong; a reference to patent medicines (Duke of Peruna and Lydia Pinkham were real 1910s-20s remedies, humorously paired as a "married couple"); a dark joke equating cannibals with ordinary people; and visual humor about a girl's panicked movement from a bug being "poetry of motion." The final joke uses personification—leaves "realize" their greenness and blush with embarrassment. These are typical of *Whiz Bang*'s style: lowbrow, pun-heavy, and occasionally risqué by period standards, targeting working-class readers with accessible, irreverent humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 29 Dear Kapten Billy—An electriek trolley goes through my corn feild. Would it be against the law to uze it to shock my corn with?—O. G. Kroakim. No, but be careful and not let the juice wet the kernels. * * * Dear Skipper—What is meant by “self respect”?—Dottie Dimple. Self respect, Dottie, is a comfortable feeling one has in having escaped detection. * * * Dear “Skipper”—Who was the Duke of Peruna?—C. C. Pill. Lydia Pinkham’s husband. * * * Dear Captain Bill—Please give me a definition of a cannibal.—Student. Sure. One who loves his fellow man. * * * Dear Skipper—Kindly furnish me with an illus- tration of “Poetry of Motion.”—Awsthetic Awlice. How would this be: A picnic girl with a bug down her back? * * * Dear Skipper—Do leaves of trees turn red in the fall from blushing because they are showing naked limbs?—Bon Jurrows. No, it’s because they realize how green they were all summer.