Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, May 1922 · page 61 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #33 — page 61: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine presents several short humorous pieces targeting early 1920s social anxieties. **"Frugality Personified"** mocks extreme thriftiness through Olaf, a Scandinavian farm worker (suggested by the name). The joke exaggerates immigrant stereotypes—particularly Scots and Scandinavians—as obsessively stingy, depicting absurd recycling of tobacco and bodily materials. The cranberry/prune quip adds nonsensical humor. **"Health Hint"** and the **alimony joke** target marriage and divorce—contemporary social concerns as divorce rates rose. The alimony reference invokes the American Revolution slogan "no taxation without representation" to mock spousal support payments. **"Song of the Green Table"** is a pool hall boast—a self-deluding claim of skill that became stock humor during Prohibition, when speakeasies and gambling dens proliferated. Overall, the page reflects 1920s anxieties about immigrants, changing marriage dynamics, and urban vice culture through quick satirical zingers typical of the magazine's style.
📄 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 59 Frugality Personified With the addition of our new farm hand, the Whiz Bang fertilizing plant now possesses a man whom I claim can outdo the canniest Scot in the world when it comes to frugality. I have seen Olaf chew his tobacco until there was no kick left in it; then dry the remains; then smoke the dried parchment, after which he would snuff the ashes and then blow his nose for material with which to grease his shoes. When he had finished the greasing operation he would wipe his nose on a raw rock so as to save his handkerchief. In this connection I might say that Olaf also claims that he prefers cranberries because they make better apple sauce than prunes. * * * George Washington married a widow, and was soon after known as the “Father of his Country.” * * * Health Hint Never marry a woman whose ambition it is to be a widow. * * * Alimony is like the American Revolution of 1776. It’s taxation without representation. * * * Song of the Green Table “I may not be a pool shark, but I’m a big fish just the same.”