Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, June 1922 · page 18 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #34 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* (a satirical humor magazine) contains two main sections: **"Maybe He Kissed Her"** is a parody contest mocking how different magazines would describe a romantic kiss. It ridicules their affected writing styles—*Snappy Stories* for purple prose ("voluptuous red lips"), the *Smart Set* for pretentious French affectation ("sang froid," "Mon cher"), the *Saturday Evening Post* for saccharine sentimentality, and *Century* for pseudo-intellectual language ("osculate"). The humor lies in exaggerating each publication's characteristic voice. **The closing joke** features racial stereotypes typical of 1920s-era humor—a white man (Sam) objecting to a Black man touching his wife at a show, but his wife (Mandy) claiming the stranger is no threat because she doesn't know him. The joke trades on period assumptions and offensive dialect representation. The earlier verse about "Bilious Billy" and "Gus" appears unrelated domestic/farm humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
16 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang "And what I want they haven't got Where I am going to go." "That will do," said Bilious Billy, "I think you've said enough." He then removed the cover From off a box of snuff. "You've granted my dying wish" said Gus, And I'll leave this life of charm, My blessing on Pedro, pedigreed bull, And all of the Whiz Bang farm. * * * Maybe He Kissed Her The editor herewith produces a suggestion from Punch Bowl for a truly characteristic paragraph on the subject "He kissed her; she was full of beans," as it would be written in the Whiz Bang. For the best paragraph we will present the reader with a free ticket to the Whiz Bang pasture and also a year's subscription to the little old Banger. Here are some shots as other magazines might write it— Snappy Stories: "Slowly her sinuous arms crept se- ductively about his shoulders and around his neck, as Nedra, with a world of passion in her languorous eyes, held up her voluptuous red lips to be kissed." Smart Set: "With her lingerie draped in charming abandon and daring decollette, Esme rose from her es- critoire and walked toward him with utter sang froid, placed her arms about his shoulders and, casting convention to the wind, whispered, 'Mon cher.' " Saturday Evening Post: "She flung her arms about his brawny shoulders and sighed softly, 'Kiss me, dear.' " Century: "Placing her arms about him in a palpably compromising position, she enunciated, 'Let us osculate.' " * * * Sam (to his wife at show)—"Mandy, tell dat niggah to take his arm away from aroun' yo' waist." Mandy—"Tell him yoself. He's a puffect stranger to me."