Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, June 1922 · page 16 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #34 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine contains three unrelated jokes typical of early 20th-century American humor: 1. **Mrs. Callahan's joke**: A domestic violence gag where a wife admits beating her husband with a "single-tree" (a farm implement). The humor relies on role-reversal and the casual bar-room setting (Eddie is apparently a bartender). 2. **The manure spreader anecdote**: A double-entendre joke playing on a city woman's prudish reaction to farm machinery. "For land's sake" is her shocked exclamation; Olaf's literal "Yes" response suggests innocent obliviousness, creating the comedy. 3. **The parrot and owl**: A bedroom scene where a bawdy parrot makes inappropriate advances toward a disrobing woman, while an owl's innocent "Who-o-o-o?" is reinterpreted as voyeuristic. The parrot insults the owl, creating absurdist humor. All three jokes reflect lowbrow, ribald humor standard for this era's "men's magazines."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
14 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang “Oh, nothing much,” answered Mrs. Calla- han. “I just beat the donkey off my hubby with this single-tree.” (Now that that’s off my mind, fill ’em up again, Eddie.) * * * NEXT day Olaf was driving the manure spreader about the fields in preparation for the spring plowing. A sweet maiden who had motored from the city, became stalled on the highway near the Whiz Bang farm. Olaf, like all gentlemanly farm-hands, came to her rescue. She blushingly asked Olaf what kind of an invention he was driving in the field. “A manure spreader,” was Olaf’s answer. “For land’s sake,” said the maiden. “Yes,” said Olaf. * * * Now, I Wonder A spinster, on her birthday, received a par- rot in an immense cage. The next day an owl was delivered in a similar manner. Being a lover of birds, she placed the two cages in her bedroom. That evening when she was disrob- ing, the parrot squawked: “Ain’t she a peach? Ain’t she a peach? I’d like to kiss her!” The owl drolled his familiar words: “Who-o-o-o, Who-o-o-o?” “Not you, you bald-faced heathen!” retorted the parrot.