Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1921 · page 59 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #23 — page 59: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine contains four brief humor pieces typical of early 20th-century American comedy: 1. **"Could Explain Readily"**: Mocks a temperance lecturer by having him claim Jesus regretted turning water into wine—absurd logic that undercuts the prohibition movement's moral authority. 2. **"My tear!"**: Appears to satirize affected speech or snobbery, with characters using exaggerated diction ("diamint" for "diamond"). 3. **"The Other View"**: A domestic joke where a wife worries her low-cut dress attracts stares; her husband's brutal comeback suggests her face is so unattractive it will repel attention instead. 4. **"No Use"**: A cynical poem about romantic disappointment—love gains nothing, eating causes pain, kissing leads to gossip. Expresses romantic disillusionment in humorous verse. The humor relies on period attitudes: anti-temperance sentiment, class mockery, marital ridicule, and romantic pessimism. These short jokes were standard filler content in early 1900s comic magazines.
📄 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 57 Could Explain Readily An enthusiastic temperance proponent was lecturing vigorously on his pet theme when someone in the audience asked him how he could account for the miracle of the turning of the water into wine. “That,” he piped up in all seriousness, “was the one act performed by the Founder of the Christion religion which He ever after regretted.” * * * “My tear! Isn’t he brilliant!” “It’s the goods, Maurice, just so brilliant like a glass diamint.” * * * The Other View Mrs. Justso— “Is my gown cut too low in the back? I can just feel that those men behind us are staring at me.” Mr. Husband— “Aw, turn around and show ’em your face and they’ll quit staring.” * * * No Use No use lovin’ Ain’t no gain; No use eatin’, Just a pain; No use kissin’, He’ll go tell; No use nothin’, Oh Hell!