Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, March 1922 · page 32 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #31 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate jokes typical of 1920s satirical humor, all relying on ethnic and racial stereotypes: **"Mr. Harper's Special"** uses racist caricature of Black people. The "joke" centers on a couple applying for a marriage license already having children—the clerk is scandalized, but the woman deflects by blaming bad roads for the delay. The humor derives entirely from dehumanizing stereotypes about Black sexuality and family structure. **"It's a New One On Us"** is a mild domestic joke where a child mistakes her father's mustache for something else, with a punchline implying the mother is hairy or masculine. Relatively harmless compared to the others. **"Dot's Right"** uses Yiddish-inflected English dialect humor, portraying Jewish immigrants ("Cohen," "Ikey") as penny-pinching and physically awkward. The "joke" is the father's concern about the son splitting his pants while taking stairs two at a time to save shoe wear. All three exemplify how early 20th-century American humor normalized crude ethnic mockery as entertainment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
30 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Mr. Harper's Special A Darky and his brown sweetheart, followed by three pickaninnies, applied to the clerk of a Southern court house for a license to wed. The clerk eyed the assemblage doubtfully. “Whose children are these?” he asked. “Dey our’n,” was the ready response from the man. The clerk was scandalized, being new at his post. “You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, waiting to get married till you have a family half grown—” “Jedge, you’ll have to excuse dat,” inter- rupted the “bride,” sweetly. “De roads out our way is so bad!” * * * It’s a New One On Us Elizabeth—Say, daddie, what is that thing under your nose? Daddie—Why! That’s my mustache. Why do you ask? Elizabeth—I just wondered what you called it. Mamma’s got one of them things under her arm. * * * Dot’s Right Cohen—Ikey, what for you go up dem shtairs two at a time? Ikey—To safe my shoes, fader. Cohen—Dot’s right, my son; but look out you don’t shplit your pandts.