Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1921 · page 37 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #22 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine contains several brief humorous pieces rather than a single cartoon. The content includes: **Serious reflections**: A lengthy passage about living a virtuous life, culminating in a simple epitaph "Here Lies a Man"—suggesting that a good life requires no elaborate justification. **Three wisdom proverbs**: A hierarchy distinguishing between teachable ignorance, dangerous false confidence, and true wisdom. This is classic self-help satire. **Sexual humor**: A joke about men's inability to resist looking at women in short skirts—referencing 1920s fashion anxieties about women's hemlines rising. **Alcoholic humor**: A final crude joke about a drunk ("soak") hoping to be returned to a bottle after death, suggesting men prefer drinking to life itself. The overall tone mixes earnest moralizing with lowbrow jokes about masculine weakness—typical of *Whiz Bang*, which targeted working-class male readers with bawdy, 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 35 when I look across the dinner table at my wife who has been a blessing to me, I will have nothing to con- ceal. Keep me young enough to laugh with little chil- dren, and sympathetic enough to be considerate of old age. And when comes the day of darkened shades and the smell of flowers, the tread of soft footsteps and the crunching of wheels in the yard—make the cere- mony short and the epitaph simply ‘Here Lies a Man.’ ” * * * He that does not know, And knows he does not know; Can be taught. TEACH HIM! * * * He that does not know, But thinks he knows; Is a dangerous man. BEWARE OF HIM! * * * He that does know, And knows he knows; Is a wise man— FOLLOW HIM! * * * It’s a stiff neck that has no turning when a short skirt goes by. * * * I hope that when I die they’ll pour me back in the bottle. So do other soaks.