Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, February 1922 · page 33 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #30 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate jokes typical of 1920s American humor magazines: **"Very Well"** is a risqué poem about seduction where a man successfully flirts with a woman—until the punchline reveals she steals from him while he embraces her. The joke plays on gender stereotypes and petty theft. **"A Tough Steak"** is a cannibal joke (a common format in period humor) with self-referential satire: the punchline suggests the Whiz Bang editor is so unpalatable/unpleasant that even cannibals wouldn't want to eat him. This was likely an inside joke among the magazine's staff. **"Nah, Nah!"** is a conductor-passenger joke. The passenger uses "forward" ambiguously (asking if his wife is aboard), and the conductor deliberately misinterprets it as a character question, implying the wife wasn't flirtatious *with him*—a cheeky insult. The opening anecdote about "Maclyn" and "Fatty" references silent film personalities, likely comparing early star Maclyn Arbuckle to rising star Fatty Arbuckle, though details are unclear.
📄 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 Maclyn was a well known star before Fatty was ever heard of. But luckily he had a sense of humor. So he said, “Oh, well (maybe it wasn’t exactly that), you can’t buck such reasoning,” and let his name go into tiny type. * * * **Very Well** I said she’d made with me a hit— Very well. Perhaps I was a trifle lit— Very well. I told her that she was divine, She let me hold her hand in mine, In short—I handed out my line Very well. I whispered softly in her ear, Very well. ’Twas, how appropriately! dear— Very well. I drew her snugly to my breast, While she, not daring to protest Cleaned out the pockets of my vest. Very well! * * * **A Tough Steak** Cannibal No. 1—What makes the chief such a bunk spreader? Cannibal No. 2—He just ate the editor of Whiz Bang. * * * **Nah, Nah!** “Is my wife forward?” asked the passenger on the Limited. “She wasn’t to me sir,” answered the con- ductor politely.