Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, December 1921 · page 33 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #28 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* contains two brief humorous anecdotes typical of the magazine's satirical style. The first joke plays on the common insult "Were you raised in a barn?"—used to mock someone's manners. The twist: the man *actually was* raised in a barn, so hearing a donkey's bray makes him nostalgic rather than insulted. The satire mocks both the rude businessman's assumption that rural upbringing equals poor breeding, and the unexpected emotional vulnerability of the working-class victim. The second joke relies on period attitudes about women's fashion. A "table line gown" appears to be an extremely revealing or low-cut dress. The punchline—"I dropped my fork"—relies on the implication that the speaker deliberately looked down to see what wasn't covered, using the fork-drop as a pretense. It's mild by modern standards but reflects period anxieties about women's increasingly daring fashion. Both jokes target social pretension and hypocrisy.
📄 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 31 The Bray of An Ass A man who was walking through a train inadvertently left the door of one of the cars open. A big man sitting in a seat in the middle of the car yelled: “Shut the door, you fool! Were you raised in a barn?” The man who had left the door open closed it and then, dropping into a seat, buried his face in his hands and began to weep. The big man looked somewhat uncomfortable and, rising finally walked up to the weeper and tapped him on the shoulder. “My friend,” he said, “I didn’t intend to hurt your feelings. I just wanted you to close the door.” The man who was weeping raised his head and grinned. “Old man,” he said, “I am not crying because you hurt my feelings, but because you asked me if I was raised in a barn. The fact is that I was raised in a barn, and every time I hear an ass bray it makes me homesick.” * * * ‘Throw Out the Life Line’ “How did you like the banquet last night?” “Fine. There was a lady at the table across from me who had one of those ‘table line gowns’ on. She looked like Venus.” “How do you know she had on a gown, then?” “I dropped my fork.”