Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, February 1922 · page 26 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #30 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains six brief jokes typical of 1920s American humor magazines. The content reflects period attitudes and conventions: **"That Reminds Me"** uses romantic sentiment undercut by practical money concerns—a common joke format about marriage. **The gallows joke** employs racial dialect and minstrelsy stereotypes common in early 20th-century American humor, featuring a caricatured Black man ("darky," "Sambo") in a dark scenario played for laughs. **"April Fool"** trades on marital infidelity as humor—the punchline relies on the unexpected revelation that the "strange man" is the unfaithful husband. **"Curbstone Comedy"** uses a pun: "engine-ears" sounds like "engineer," playing on the wife's literal interpretation of "spank the engine over the ears." These jokes reflect *Whiz Bang*'s lowbrow, rapid-fire comedic style. The racial material is particularly jarring to modern readers—it represents accepted entertainment conventions of that era that are now recognized as offensive and dehumanizing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
24 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang That Reminds Me Algernon—Dearest, I could sit here forever gazing into your charming eyes and listening to the wash of the ocean. The Girl—That reminds me, Honey. I have a laundry bill and I’m dead broke. * * * There’s one thing I can’t eat for breakfast and that is supper. * * * While a darky was being led to the gallows a crowd of people ran past him. “What yo all running fo?” yelled Sambo after them, “Dey ain’t nothin’ gwine to happen till ah gets dere.” * * * He is so stingy he goes to the postoffice to fill his fountain pen. * * * April Fool Johnny (running into the room of his mother on April 1st)—“Mama, there’s a strange man kissing our maid.” Mother—“What, a strange man?” Johnny—“April fool, it’s only papa.” * * * Curbstone Comedy He stopped the balky car. “Honey, I must get out and spank the engine over the ears.” “Oh, engine-ears!”